Author: Kristin

Here is why, after 20 years, Darren Hayes still refuses to talk to Daniel Jones and how the Savage Garden breakup still negatively impacts him today.

On KIIS with Kylie and Jackie O, they had made a comment claiming Darren was the one who had left the bad, to which he corrected them by saying the following:

“Well, hang on, let me clarify that. I loved it; I would have been in that band forever.”

They proceeded to ask him if Daniel had been good to and supportive of Darren, and this is what he said:

“Uh, no.” I was really supportive of him; he absolutely hated the experience of being famous. He decided before the release of that second album (1999’s Affirmation) that he didn’t want that life—which is totally his right. A week before Affirmation came out, we had the number one single around the world (I Knew I Loved You), and Daniel had a life crisis and decided he didn’t want to do it anymore. We had to convince him: ‘Could you just maybe tour the album, and let’s work this out later on?”

The band would continue to go on for another couple of years before the messy split.

This is what else Darren had to say about the situation:

“His leaving was a huge rug pulled out from under me, and for contractual reasons we couldn’t really talk about it. He held that press conference where he said, ‘Oh, this is the first I’ve heard of it,’ which was such a stupid thing to say, because people thought I’d left the band.”

That press conference was held at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens on October 5, 2001. Daniel Jones had told the media that he was disappointed with the split, and he claimed Darren Hayes had not consulted him about the breakup of the band.

During other interviews Darren said the following:

“It is pretty obvious now who was behind the split, he’s never made music since.”

In an interview with News Corp in 2015, Daniel referred to his time in the band as: “like a bad road trip.”

Darren had this to say about him forgiving Daniel on the matter:

I have so much forgiveness for him now. I don’t like the way he went about it, but I’ve forgiven him.

When Darren was asked whether him and Daniel still speak, after scoffing he said:

Oh no. Nooo. When someone does that to you and doesn’t apologise … I mean, Kyle still believes the lie; that’s a pretty major betrayal. It affected my career and my life. Going solo wasn’t a planned thing.

This is a quote by Darren Hayes on his thoughts and feelings about what happened that fateful day when Omar Mateen took the lives of many innocent people who just wanted to hit up the club for a night of fun:

“The Pulse tragedy felt particularly personal to me because it was one of the first mass shootings that had occurred since my husband and I moved back to live permanently in the United States. It broke my heart that this violence was unleashed upon an already marginalized group of people in a space that was supposed to be a place of celebration and refuge.”

On the song’s inspiration, the musician continues, “I wanted to write a song that honored the victims without being mournful, to take the focus away from the perpetrator and put it back on the tremendous love and connection that is the foundation of a queer community and one that can never be erased.”

In the article it also goes on to mention how Darren found healing and freedom with being able to release his new album, Homosexual, and finally be true to himself. And here is some of what he had to say about it:

“My album title “Homosexual” is a personal reclamation of a pejorative and re-inventing it as something shame-free for me. I’ve been on a personal journey to rid myself of the shame I felt as a young man and my own internalized homophobia the kept me from loving myself as a teenager.”

“It’s also political — we live in time where a Michigan town would rather close a library than have a queer book in it — so in an era of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ I feel compelled to push back against the stigma. I’m proud of who I am, and I’m rejecting past narratives and definitions associated with the word. I’m injecting joy and pride into a cold, clinical word.”

“I’m also a recording artist who came up in an era where being openly gay was frowned upon and I experienced first hand, the attempted erasure of my true identity from the marketing department of a major record label. But perhaps the most important reason I chose this title is that in 2022, I’m living in a time and in a country where the freedoms of LGBTQI+ people are more at risk than they’ve ever been.”

“I lounge proudly underneath the electric buzz of this symbol, this term that used to be used to denigrate people like me. Now it’s my word. Now it means whatever I want it to mean.”

“If you haven’t worked it out yet, I think it means something magical, amazing, unique and essential. My name is Darren Hayes. And I’m a proud Homosexual”

“I would say my new album honestly saved my life. I was in a dark place, emotionally, not understanding that just like my sexuality, my creative outlet is a huge part of the person I am, and by denying that, I was denying an essential part of me.”

Source: Savage Garden’s Darren Hayes Honors 2016 Pulse Shooting Victims with ‘All You Pretty Things’ Single

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Kristin’s thoughts: What a touching tribute and love-filled words from a kind soul.  I am so proud of Darren, and I wish him all the best as a lifelong fan.

Darren Hayes gets candid about his struggles with depression in his single titled “Poison Blood.” Below are some lyrics from that song that will just tug at your heartstrings and bring tears to your eyes.

“And it’s not that I don’t want to live, it’s the pain that I wish I could kill. All the times that I wanted to die, I made a choice I was gonna survive.”

This is what Darren Hayes had to say about his raw and emotional song, “Poison Blood” and the meaning behind it:

“‘Poison Blood’ is a song about choosing to stay when everything else in your life is telling you to leave. I have a family history of depression and suicide and I talk openly about my own diagnosis in the hope that I might inspire someone who is struggling to seek help, as I have proudly done many times throughout my life.

I describe my depression as a blessing, a gift and a curse all at once. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy and yet I’m aware I am a deeply sensitive person, and that my unique brain allows me to feel depths of emotions that many people don’t experience.

So I have learned to use those moments to channel melodies and stories that I hope are so real and so relatable they might reach someone else who is in pain, like me, and remind them to stay, like I choose to, every single day.”

Source: Darren Hayes shares vulnerable new single ‘Poison Blood’

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Kristin’s thoughts: Like Darren, I too suffer from depression from my painful upbringing; I have done so ever since I was a young child. I also struggle with immense and often debilitating anxiety, having to rely on anti-anxiety medication just to survive. So, I can completely empathize with what he has gone through. I wish life had been easier for him, but I do hope his future days are full of joy.