Daniel Johns shares how he developed an eating disorder as a teen because of Silverchair success

Daniel Johns’ startling admissions about his mental health struggle, bullying, and Australia’s toxic tall poppy syndrome.

Daniel Johns would go for three-hour long walks with his dog in the middle of the night to “lose weight” during the height of his battle with anorexia in the late 90s.

Johns developed an eating disorder in his late teens after the band released their second album Freak Show and his mental health was eroded by Silverchair’s fame and the constant bullying he suffered when home in Newcastle.

In the second episode of the Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast, the musician reveals he became a recluse after the band’s second album, shutting himself away in his childhood bedroom with his dog Sweep, listening to his favourite hard rock and metal music.

Johns wrote Ana’s Song (Open Fire) about his battle with anorexia. Picture: NCA.

‘I was going to be f … ing Kurt Cobain, I felt that bad,’ Johns reveals in the podcast.

“I used to wait until everyone went to bed and then I would take her for walks at 2am for like, three hours, because I was anorexic so I was trying to lose weight,” he told interviewer Kaitlyn Sawrey.

The late night walks were his only escape from his room.

Fans would camp outside the Johns’ family home in Newcastle, haters would spray-paint anti-Silverchair graffiti on the front fence and if he did venture out, he faced a barrage of abuse hurled from passing cars or pedestrians.

He said eating – or not eating – was the only facet of his life he could control as a chart-topping, world-touring teen superstar.

Daniel Johns shut himself away in his family home in Newcastle after the Freak Show album. Picture: NCA.

“That’s eating disorder 101 … I couldn’t control anything but I could control what I ate,” he said.

English producer Nick Launay, whose work with Midnight Oil inspired Silverchair to hire him to make Freak Show, was enlisted by family and the band’s inner circle to coax Johns out of his bedroom.

Launay had won the trust of Johns and his bandmates Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou by going on joyrides around their high school and on an egging expedition with the mischievous teens.

By the time the producer visited Johns in 1998, he was “very, very, very thin” and no longer talking to his bandmates, fearful of reigniting Silverchair and having to face the world again. Johns had had enough of Australia’s toxic brand of tall poppy syndrome.

Daniel Johns has been working hard on his mental health in recent years. Picture: Luke Eblen @ebflow

But Launay managed to reassure the songwriter the new songs he had written were worth recording and reunited him with his bandmates.

The final song recorded for their third record Neon Ballroom, released in 1999, would be the raw and vulnerable Ana’s Song (Open Fire) about his struggle with anorexia.

“People didn’t talk about mental health in the late 90s, that was not a thing … it made you look like you were weak,” Johns said.

“Now, you can talk about it, it’s fine. But over time, I used to just have to sit and figure this shit out by myself.

“Otherwise I was going to be f … ing Kurt Cobain, I felt that bad. I didn’t want to be that way and I wanted to forge my own future.”

The second episode of the podcast drops on Wednesday. Picture: Supplied.

In the new podcast episode, Johns takes interviewer Sawrey on a tour of that childhood bedroom, which is a “museum”, still adorned with the posters of the bands he idolised as a youth and memorabilia from his Silverchair days.

Like the signed photo from Pamela Anderson, who was at the zenith of her Baywatch fame when the Aussie rock band were all over the airwaves.

When he was just 14, she inscribed a “saucy” photo with “To Daniel, you guys rip.”

“It’s like the teenage dream, right?” Johns said.

The teen rock stars loved a good prank. Picture: Supplied.

The singer also revives the hilarious story of how he and then Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro were arrested by Californian police in late 1996 for driving a car onto Santa Monica beach.

They were “test driving” the car for a magazine shoot and were required to remain in carpark because Johns was only 17.

“Dave Navarro was antagonising me, (saying) ‘Do something crazy’ so I drove over a barrier and onto a private beach and was doing donuts,” Johns said.

“Then all of a sudden, all the cops came … and we were taken to jail.

“I had to call the record company and my mum was called – we had to tour with a mum until we were 18 – and mum says ‘What are you doing hanging out with Dave Navarro getting arrested?”

Johns was released without charge - after posing for photos with the officers.

The second episode of Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast is now on Spotify.

Originally published as Daniel Johns shares how he developed an eating disorder as a teen because of Silverchair success