The remarkable Olivia Newton-John
Interviewed August 28, 2007
Olivia Newton-John, one of Australia’s best-loved exports, has recently been staying in a cabin in Ontario, writing songs with Canadian songwriter Amy Sky. They were writing songs especially for the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series that Newton-John is filming in November. After they had finished putting their songs together, I spoke with her about their collaboration. I wanted to know how two songwriters go about jointly writing a song.
Newton-John told me she had written songs with a number of other writers but felt she had a particular affinity with Sky. They both are singers with similar tastes, and there is similarity in the types of music they love. Sometimes one of them will have an idea for a lyric or a bit of a melody, and a song is born. Then Newton-John might sing something, and Sky will sit at the piano and come up with something good to follow it.
Her 2006 CD Grace and Gratitude was written jointly by the two and produced by Sky. And it has a purpose. They both believe that music can boost the body’s healing process. Grace and Gratitude is currently available in stores and on the Internet.
Newton-John’s singing career began in Australia at the age of 15, and it was in 1971 that her album If Not For You received the attention of the world in general.
She was born into an historic German family. Her grandfather. Max Born, won the Noble Peace prize for Physics in 1954. Her mother, Irene Newton-John, remembered Einstein coming to their home in Germany and playing the violin for them when she was a little girl. In later life, she would translate letters exchanged between the great man and her father.
Irene married Brinley Newton-John in England in 1937. They had three children. Hugh, Rona, and Olivia. The family moved to Australia when Olivia was six, and her father eventually became Dean of Ormond College. Her parents divorced five years later, and her mother went back to work to help raise the family. She became a well-known photographer and freelance writer. She was a great role model for Olivia, encouraging her young daughter’s talent. Without her guidance, Olivia might not have become the superstar she is today.
Leading Australian musician John Farrar played a large part in her career. Newton-John explained that he was probably the biggest influence of anyone in her musical life, writing and producing a large number of her hit songs, including “Magic,” and “Suddenly.”
Farrar’s greatest success with Newton-John came with the film version of the musical Grease through a chance meeting with producer Alan Carr at a Hollywood party thrown by her friend and fellow Australian Helen Reddy. It was through this meeting that Newton-John was selected to play the lead role of Sandy.
When the movie was in preparation, Farrar wrote “Hopelessly Devoted To You” and “You’re The One That I Want.” Both were quickly incorporated into the movie and proved to be the most successful songs in the show, becoming major hits around the world when they were released as singles. Grease was the biggest box office hit of 1978; and the film remains so popular with audiences, it was re-released twenty years later.
Farrar has worked with Newton-John, writing many of her hit songs for thirty-six years. He is married to Pat Carroll, one of her best friends. Newton-John told me, “John has been working on musicals for the last ten or fifteen years. He wrote the musical Wuthering Heights for Cliff Richard and is now working on one called Gidget. He’s not involved in the recording industry or writing pop music at the moment.”
In 1979, Newton-John received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth. In 2002, she was inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame. In 2006, Newton-John was awarded the Order of Australia for service to the entertainment industry as a singer and actor and to the community through organizations supporting breast cancer treatment, education, training, and research, and the environment.
Asked about her constantly busy lifestyle, she says, “I’m only human-there are lots of times when I’ve been down, but I have a strong survival instinct. And with my daughter, work, and friends. I’ve got a lot to live for!”
As Newton-John had overcome breast cancer in 1992, I asked her about the healing retreat she owns in Australia. “The GAIA retreat is a work of love. It’s in Byron Bay, near Brisbane. It’s not a boot camp where you go to get in shape. It’s a place you go to for rest and relaxation and to renew yourself. It’s very peaceful; we have wonderful healthy food, and the best healers in the region give the treatments. The place is known for its healing. Every time I go to Australia, I have the luxury of spending time there and taking some treatments myself.”
She told me she had also allowed her name to be used on a cancer hospital - the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre, “ … but I insisted they have a wellness centre attached. I believe we have to focus on wellness instead of just focusing on the illness!”
Newton-John has a twenty-two-song CD coming out in November called Olivia Newton-John’s Christmas Wish. She will be promoting it during her October Canadian concert tour when she will be singing many of her hit songs, and she is looking forward to meeting friends old and new.
The Canadian tour is in October. Treat yourself, and go and see this remarkable woman in concert. You will certainly have a night to remember!
By Patricia O'Connor
Newton-John's show schedule.
October 4/5/6
Fallsview Casino Resort, Niagara Falls, Ontario
October 9
Community Auditorium,
Thunder Bay, Ontario (tickets from venue)
October 11
Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
October 12
Conexus Arts Centre,
Regina, Saskatchewan (tickets via website)
October 13
TCU Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
October 16
Francis Winspear Centre, Edmonton, Alberta (tickets from venue)
October 17
Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary, Alberta
October 19
River Rock Casino, Richmond, B.C.
October 20
Red Robinson Show Theatre, Coquitlam, B.C.