Shannon Noll has hit back at his numerous critics while addressing his recent onstage antics at an event in Penrith last night.
Ever since he placed second in the inaugural edition of Australian Idol back in 2003, Shannon Noll has undoubtedly been a bit of a card in the Aussie music industry. While he’s often seen as somewhat of a personified meme, or the butt of a joke, his genuine nature and desire to not hold back has seen him considered as a bit of a folk hero.
However, Noll ended up receiving widespread criticism for an onstage rant last month that was deemed foul-mouthed and misogynistic by many of his critics.
The incident in question occurred at the Duck Creek Races in New South Wales in July, and was spurned by a member of the crowd throwing a can at Noll’s head while performing on stage.
Soon, the singer appealed for the audience member to come up onstage, calling them “that fucker in a tie”, and “a fucking maggot”.
“Hey, who thinks he should come up,” Noll asked the crowd at the time. “Shame that prick, shame that motherfucker right there. Fucking private school stupid fuckhead motherfucker. Have some balls and get up here and I’ll punch your fucking teeth down your throat.”
“Then I’ll fuck your missus and your mum.”
“Let everybody else, apart from that fuckstick, sing along to a great song, okay, here we go. I’ll give someone $100 bucks to punch that fuck for me,” Noll concluded. “Enough with the haters, fuck the haters. There’s too many good looking girls here.”
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While Shannon Noll took to Facebook at the time to apologise for his behaviour, the musician has since taken the opportunity while performing at the Penrith Panthers Leagues Club to hit back at his critics, blaming the media for ignoring the context of his infamous rant.
As News Corp notes, Noll took the time out of his set last night to address the crowd, explaining how the incident at the time was blown out of proportion by the media who weren’t aware of the previous events.
“They all made out like it was just one can, you know what I mean?” Noll explained to the audience. “We were there for 80 minutes and there were 35 cans thrown at us onstage. So it wasn’t just the one that was reported.
“We only stuck out there because we knew the event would suffer if we didn’t, so we tried to do the right thing. But I tell you what — when a flying can’s coming within 30 metres of your forehead about 15 times, you start to get sick of it.”
“So I appreciate that you’re not reading into that bullshit, and coming out to support me.”
While Shannon Noll proceeded to move on with his performance, he again referenced the incident before jumping into his 2005 hit, ‘Lift’.
“I’ve had a lot of people in the industry messaging me saying, ‘Man, I feel so bad for you, for what you’re going through at the moment’,” he explained.
“With all the turmoil and all the crap I’m copping at the moment, I just think of all the good things going on in my career … that’s what makes me go -” he states before displaying two middle fingers to the crowd. “That’s what keeps me going forward.”
“This song’s done more good than any of you big-mouthed wankers will ever do with their whole friggin’ lives,” he continued. “So I don’t care, they can say whatever they want.”
Needless to say, while Shannon Noll’s frustrations might have been valid, there’s a very slim chance he’s manage to convert the opinions of any of his haters with this approach.
Check out Shannon Noll’s ‘Lift’:
