http://womansday.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=818573Living legend
John Farnham will thrill fans with a return to the
stage when his new national tour kicks off in September but says he's
certainly changed since he toured Australia as a teenager in 1969.
"It used to be I spent five minutes in the make-up chair and an hour on
stage," John joked at a press conference in Sydney where his plans were
unveiled.
"Now it's the opposite!"
Only weeks shy of his 60th birthday, John says he will also have to
work on getting his famous voice into shape in time for the Live By
Demand tour which starts in Sydney on September 3 before going to the
Hunter Valley, Hobart, Brisbane, Perth, The Barossa Valley and
Melbourne.
"I haven't done much singing at all — even in the shower!" John said of his time out of the spotlight.
"About five thirty every evening I gargle with a glass of red wine.
"That usually makes my voice feel pretty good so I gargle with another one."
But John — who officially retired in 2007 after performing at the
Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony in Melbourne in 2006 — says fans
won't be disappointed with the performance he has planned, which will
showcase all his greatest hits plus a few new tunes to boot.
But with more than 20 years between him and his first number one hit
Sadie the Cleaning Lady, these days he is on the lookout for different
material.
"The difficulty is finding grown-up songs," he says.
"I don't want to sing 'Oooh baby, I love you baby!'"
"The wife gets annoyed."
John married Jillian Billman, a dancer, in 1973 and the couple have two sons, Robert Farnham and James Farnham.
Dad says both boys have had a few laughs at the expense of famous hairdos over the years.
"My boys call the mullet a world class mullet!" he says.
Now, fighting fit and with a modern 'do, John is ready to return the stage and is living proof you can't keep a good man down.
"I'm tired of being retired," he says, adding that his desire to return
to the stage was "galvanised" by a recent appearance with international
stars Coldplay at the Sound Relief event in Sydney.
"I'm not dead yet!"
Subject: John Farnham 
May 29th 2009, 11:14 am
all growing up my sisters and mum played his music and by the time i was 16 all i wanted was to go see him
