Guy Sebastian reveals scariest moment of his life, lifting lid on ‘dark thoughts’ and price of fame
He became a household name thanks to Australian Idol but it hasn’t been a life of pop songs and awards for Guy Sebastian. He opens up about his biggest struggles in the Mental As Anyone podcast.
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Guy Sebastian has revealed the struggle he’s fought over the more than two decades since being labelled “the fat kid on (Australian) Idol”.
In a wide-ranging interview, Sebastian says he has never been clinically diagnosed with depression but has battled his share of demons.
“I feel like I’ve been fairly dark in certain places,” the 42-year-old tells the Mental As Anyone podcast, launching Tuesday morning.
“If I had to say what my definition of depression was, I would say I’ve ticked every box at a certain time in my life. Probably the only time I think seriously that maybe my best friend was worried about me and why I don’t say it was depression is because I don’t think it was out of my control. I think it was situational depression and I knew I needed to get out of a situation, I just didn’t realise how dark that situation had got me into.”
That moment was a number of years ago when the father of two was in Edinburgh, Scotland, for work.
“I was just a bit scared,” he said. “And so I decided that I wasn’t really thinking straight. I think I scared myself because I was like, what am I doing? Like why am I thinking this stuff, I need to make some changes. Then I made the changes so it wasn’t an immediate cure but I felt immediate release from what I think took me as deep as that. I couldn’t lift it and then there was like dreams … it was literally a dark figure … and then I was really confused because I grew up in church so I didn’t know whether it was something that you get taught in church. And then I was like, is this like what I heard about in church with his devil demons or something?”
Sebastian of course has been a household name since winning Australian Idol back in 2003.
Since, he has topped the charts countless times, collaborated and toured with huge names, won ARIA Awards and fronted top reality singing show, The Voice, as a coach.
Statistically, men are more likely to take their life than women. In Australia, we lose seven men a day, compared to two women.
Mental As Anyone explores how individuals across the spectrum of fame and success manage their mental health with each episode offering practical tips from guests as to how they deal with life’s struggles. Future episodes will feature the likes of Colin Fassnidge, Robert Irwin and Grant Denyer.
“I was the fat kid on Idol, I was called the fat kid. I didn’t think I was fat. I was just a bit chubby, but I … didn’t really have a massive gut or anything,” Sebastian said. “I was always fit and played heaps of sport. I haven’t had a very healthy attitude to my weight in the past.”
Sebastian famously showed off his ripped body with eight-pack abs after an intensive eight week body transformation for Australia’s Men’s Health magazine in 2017.
He’d previously tried most diets.
“I would binge eat. With my approach to losing weight, I’d be pretty extreme and it just wasn’t a healthy way of sorting it out and I’d get nowhere … just fluctuating.”
Acknowledging the challenge of losing weight, rather than “burying” it, was the way forward for him. Intermittent fasting has also worked.
“I realised when I would eat a lot, it was around times of … where I would feel lazy,” he said. “I’ve got a weird thing with laziness, where I know I’m not lazy, nothing can stop me from not being able to think that.”
With nothing off limits, Sebastian spoke about his faith, parenthood and music. His track Choir was dedicated to musician and close friend, Luke Liang, who died following his battles with mental health while Sam Fischer collaboration, Antidote, is about music being a healer of all things.
“I struggle to take time off and just switch off without thinking I’m hurting what I do,” he said. “I think kids were just the healthiest thing that happened to me because it just made me put everything in perspective.”
Sebastian’s big lesson has been focusing on the now, rather than stressing about the future.
“I’ve got this tattoo, ‘life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’, which is famous lyric, and I’m trying to do that more,” he said. “As hard as it is, I’m trying not to worry about other plans and things that are in the future. It’ll work out, It’ll be fine. If I just put my head down, work hard, but I can’t do that and forget about the people who are right here right in front of me and the people that I truly love and simplify life. I think that’s the key.”
* Catch a new episode of Mental As Anyone each Tuesday from 6am.
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Originally published as Guy Sebastian reveals scariest moment of his life, lifting lid on ‘dark thoughts’ and price of fame
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