Kyle Sandilands ambushed by savage John Blackman audio amid tribute

Kyle Sandilands paid tribute to Aussie TV great John Blackman - before being ambushed by audio of the late star trashing him in a recent interview.

Kyle Sandilands paid tribute to Australian TV great John Blackman on-air on Thursday morning - before being ambushed by audio of the late star trashing him in a recent interview.

The Sydney radio co-host was saddened to hear of the Hey Hey It’s Saturday legend’s death on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack. He was 76.

Speaking on the Kyle and Jackie O Show, Sandilands described Blackman as his “childhood hero”, but before he was able to elaborate, the shock jock’s manager Bruno Bouchet interjected to tell Sandilands that Blackman recently launched a scathing take-down of the radio duo in one of his last interviews.

Audio then played on-air of comments Blackman made on the You Cannot Be Serious podcast in May, in which he said of Sandilands and Henderson: “Why are we giving these two publicity hungry, oxygen thieves, waste of oxygen. The man [Sandilands] is a no talent. He doesn’t have a voice for radio, by the way.”

Footage of Sandilands, 52, listening to the audio was released by KIIS FM, and it shows he and Henderson, 49, listening in shock.

“I’m very confused,” Sandilands said, before speculating Blackman wasn’t a fan of him because he’s not as polished as “old school” media veterans.

Kyle theorised Blackman didn’t like him because he wasn’t “old school.”

Jackie O was stunned to hear the late broadcaster’s outburst.

“What’s happened here is old school media, TV, radio, newspapers. They’re all fake,” he said.

“They pretend everything’s wonderful. You never really know the real person.

“We [Henderson and I] don’t pretend it’s a wonderful day. Even though it’s p*ssing with rain and snowing or whatever. We don’t pretend. We say, ‘Oh, what a s**t day.’ We’re just a different breed.

“Oh well, that’s one hero of mine that’s dead. No fan of mine.”

John Blackman died Tuesday age 76. Picture: Facebook

Blackman pictured with fellow showbiz veteran Molly Meldrum.

Showbiz stalwart Blackman kickstarted his career in the late-60s before gaining notoriety for his voiceover work on the Channel 9 variety series, which aired from 1971 until 1999.

He also voiced the puppet character ‘Dickie Knee’ on the show.

After 50 years in the entertainment industry, Blackman stepped out of the limelight in 2018 after he was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer, known as basal-cell carcinoma, which saw him undergo surgery to remove his jaw.

In June 2022, Blackman announced he’d been diagnosed with bone cancer in a Facebook post.

The cast of Hey Hey It's Saturday, with Blackman back row, centre.

“I was diagnosed with a very unexpected bone cancer on the top of my noggin and the possibility of brain cancer beneath (yes, I actually do have a brain),” he wrote at the time.

“This was the same aggressive cancer that took my jaw four years ago. Happily, the cancer, if there is a happy side to cancer, was spreading up and down and not in multiple directions. This could have made surgery improbable.”

Leading tributes on Wednesday was his Hey Hey co-star and the show’s host, Daryl Somers, 72.

“He had a God-given talent to make people laugh, especially me,” Somers said in a statement.

“He used to say his mission on Hey Hey was to break me up and at times I’d be crying with uncontrollable laughter.

“Sadly today, I’m just crying.”