New excerpts of John Farnham’s audiobook memoir The Voice Inside detail former manager Darryl Sambell’s “disturbing” mistreatment of the singer during the early stages of his career.
Fans are about to hear the life story of one Australia’s most beloved voices in Farnham’s audiobook, which will be released this week.
Having fully recovered from a recent battle with mouth cancer over two years, Farnham will narrate some of his touring stories, career hurdles, health struggles, and the Australian music pioneer’s grief over losing close friend and manager Glenn Wheatley.
“‘I’ve just finished narrating my audiobook. It was a bit of a rollercoaster ride. There were more than a few laughs, and some tears, but it made me realise how lucky I’ve been,” Farnham shared in a statement.
Hachette Australia has published a taster of the audiobook, which was created in partnership with Poppy Stockell. She directed the Farnham-focused documentary musical Finding the Voice last year.
However, fresh passages published by The Australian overnight reveal Farnham’s claim that Sambell sought control over him through pills “for years”.
Farnham was unaware of the abuse for most of that time, until he found an undissolved pill at the bottom of his coffee cup.
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His old manager “drugged me for years and I had no f**king idea,” he writes in his account.
Upon confronting him, Sambell countered, “That’s just something to keep you awake.”
Such control continued for years, with Sambell controlling “where and when I worked, what I sang, what I wore, what I ate.”
Farnham also recounts having to thwart off sexual advances from his openly gay manager, realising more recently that his behaviour was related to maintaining power.
“I said it often enough that I can see now that this rejection turned his attraction into jealousy, hatred and a desire for control.”
Although Sambell died in 2001, Farnham continues to reflect on the early decade of his career with regret and discomfort.
“I feel so ashamed of myself for not realising what Darryl was up to or speaking up more often to put him back in his place,” he writes.
Farnham further discloses that it was difficult to “unpick” the historic abuse to this day, feeling “isolated from friends and family” in the past.
“I don’t enjoy talking about myself, I really don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an egomaniac, but dredging up the past is just not something I’ve ever really enjoyed,” Farnham says.
“But now that I’ve confronted it, I look back on that time with sorrow. I’m annoyed at myself for being so gullible and trusting.”
“I’ll try and share as much as I can, but that’s not easy because I’ve never really been that open. I guess there are reasons for that. Reasons for my reluctance.”
Melbourne-raised Farnham was a young pop star in the 1960s with hits like “Sadie, the Cleaning Lady” and “Everybody Oughta Sing a Song”. Spanning 21 studio albums, he remains the artist with highest-selling Australian record of all time for Whispering Jack.
Farnham fired Sambell in 1976, finding resounding success over the next two decades with Glenn Wheatley.
Farnham’s wife Jill, whom he married in 1973, wrote two chapters of her own for The Voice Inside, for which she will also narrate.
The Australian music icon conveyed a readiness for writing this memoir where it “finally felt like the right time to sit down and tell my story.”
“It is a very strange feeling looking back on my life, on the good and the bad, and now that I have started, it is all rushing back. I hope the book engages and entertains because that’s what so much of my life has been about.”
The memoir will be available for pre-order in hardcover starting Wednesday 30th October. Pre-order it here.
