Guy Sebastian defends Shannon Noll over strip club incident as he slams “negativity addicts”

GUY Sebastian says he’s had way more positive reactions about cracking the Hottest 100 than a few grumpy trolls on social media as he defends his Australian Idol mate, Shannon Noll after his alleged strip club incident.

Guy Sebastian admits he didn’t enjoy the X Factor last year. Pic: Stuart Milligan

GUY Sebastian has defended Shannon Noll over his Adelaide strip club incident that saw the What About Me singer charged with assaulting a bouncer.

Noll, 41, was arrested outside the Crazy Horse a fortnight ago and is due in court on February 24 after he allegedly punched a bouncer and screamed ‘Don’t you know who I am’?

And while Noll has yet to comment on the arrest, Sebastian was quick to rush to his mate’s defence. “There’s two sides to the story,” Sebastian said.

“I’ve known him for 14 years. I’ve hung out with him a bunch of times. I’ve never heard him ever say anything remotely like ‘Don’t you know who I am?’. It did make a hilarious meme though.”

Sebastian admitted his hometown of Adelaide likes to wind Noll up over the fact he came second in Australian Idol in 2003.

“He was in Adelaide, he’s in my home town. It’s like me going to (Noll’s hometown) Condoblin. There will be people to wind you up. My brother went to Shannon’s show that day. They felt sorry for Shannon, there were so many people trying to rile him up — the whole Idol rivalry, first and second thing. He’s only human. Most people would crack and I’ve seen him time and time again be very patient with people. He’s not perfect, none of us are.”

Guy Sebastian was as shocked as anyone to make the Hottest 100. Picture: Brett Costello

Sebastian has had to deal with his own hipster haters in the last week after being blamed for “ruining” Triple J’s Hottest 100.

The singer’s Like a Version collaboration with indie act Paces, Keeping Score, reached No. 56 in the annual poll — higher than Radiohead, as some angry Triple J purists pointed out on social media.

“It was unexpected,” Sebastian admits of his placing.

“On the day I was at a park with my family having a picnic barbecue and playing cricket. This lady wandered over and said ‘You were just in the Hottest 100, congratulations’. That was a sentence I didn’t really expect to hear. Obviously it’s not one of my songs, it’s with Paces, but it’s cool to be part of something that made the Hottest 100. If you asked me a few years ago if it’s be on Triple J’s Hottest 100 in any capacity I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s definitely nice.”

However Sebastian’s placing in the Hottest 100 pushed some sensitive Triple J fans over the edge, already unable to cope with Rihanna, Beyonce and a Justin Bieber cover being voted in — the songs have to be played on Triple J at least once to be eligible.

“Some people are sitting their with their fingers primed, waiting to be angry about something, hate on something, ”Sebastian says.

“There are serial complainers. I think people get addicted to negativity. I just don’t bother anymore. I’ve had random people on the street who’ve said ‘Oh dude, how sick is it you’re in the Hottest 100’ and people on planes or shopping centres over the past week who’ve been so lovely. I haven’t had one single person tell me to my face I shouldn’t have been on there, it’s just the keyboard warriors.

“It used to bother me, definitely. I’m very opinionated about what is deemed as credible. It’s hard to articulate without sounding bitter or that I’m trying to justify my position as a pop artist, which I don’t feel I need to. So I just don’t address it and just go with it. I’m trying to figure out where the line is. It’s really what people deem as ‘cool’ rather than ‘credible’ at the end of the day. There’s artists Triple J would openly admit they would never play. So it definitely becomes less about music and more about perception, the cool factor.”

Last year Paces (Mikey Perry) invited Sebastian to perform their collaboration at Splendour in the Grass — to masses of Triple J listeners in real life.

“The reaction was really encouraging to me. There’s so much attention paid to that small, loud negative voice. Even I went into Splendour thinking I had to wear a musical bullet proof vest. Literally not one negative thing was said to me, not even a negative look. I went on stage to soundcheck my keyboard and everyone cheered.

Queensland electro act Paces, aka Mikey Perry, was Sebastian’s entry-ticket to Triple J airplay.

“They all love Paces, it’s like if Paces endorses me they’re cool with it. Even walking to different stages everyone was really positive. It’s really not that many people, it’s just those purists who love to hate.

“Paces has given me props the whole time, he’s never once shied away from the affiliation with me. I think it’s benefited both parties. It’s what collaborations are about, two people come together and both of their strengths benefit each other. I’ve had it with Lupe Fiasco (on Battle Scars), now with Paces. I first worked with him eight years ago, he was just this dude from Queensland trying to get his name out there, he’s killed it since then.”

Just as it took several years after Idol for Sebastian to start to get ARIA nominations from his industry peers, the singer understands his reality TV beginning is a deal-breaker for some — especially Triple J purists.

“Some people can be very narrow minded. A lot of those people musically just have no idea. They get behind someone who is tragically bad at performing live and knows four chords but has an amazing story of hardship. Sometimes people get too caught up in a journey as opposed to the musical talent. A perfect storm is when there’s a great journey and a great story and the talent is there too.

“You’ve got only got to look at Matt Corby, Vera Blue, it doesn’t matter where they got their break because they’re such freakish talents, people forget (they were on TV). I think I’ve done well recently to not let it get to me and be confident in my ability.”

Sebastian has recently done his first songwriting camps — one in Bali and one in Melbourne — after avoiding them for years.

Vintage: Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll back in November 2003.

However he said rather than ‘pop’ acts looking for hits or new collaboration input most of the participants were Triple J acts.

“I’ve always been against songwriting camps, I thought they’d be a bit production line, but I loved it. But 70-per-cent of the people in Bali were indie artists. I did another one in Melbourne, 90-per-cent of the people were indie artists. None of them wanted let them know they were at this camp, their line was they didn’t want to let people to know what’s in between the bread.

“I don’t see much difference, apart from sonically, with what separates a pop artist and an indie artist. There’s a lot that are genuinely deserving of that indie label, the indie tag. They do it all themselves, you’ve only got to look at people like Flume, proper tastemakers who pave the way for so many people and they’ve done it out of their bedroom.”

Sebastian is now working on a new six track EP, a follow up to December’s Part 1.

“I’ve written most of it, but I wrote some new songs on the holiday which might overtake what’s already on there. I want to have more up-tempo soulful songs on this one.”

While the X Factor has been officially axed, Sebastian said he’d already decided not to return this year and will concentrate on new music and tours in 2017.

“I didn’t really enjoy the process last year,” he said. “I’ve never done things just for the money, I’ve gone 15 years doing things because I love them. Last year just didn’t feel right, I didn’t enjoy the panel, I didn’t enjoy the brutality of how quick it was and letting four or five artists go at a time. People couldn’t grow with the artists. They tried to reinvent it, we went out on a pretty big low unfortunately. I’m sure there’ll be something else to replace it and give artists a chance again.”

X communicated: last year’s judges Adam Lambert, Iggy Azalea and Guy Sebastian