Kyle Sandilands: “I haven’t mellowed”

When Kyle Sandilands sat down for his first lengthy interview with TV Tonight, I wasn’t sure how things would proceed.

I had much to ask in limited time, while crew rushed around in readiness for the next recording of Australia’s Got Talent. I wasn’t sure how gently I should proceed. Would he get in a huff? Were there topics that were out of bounds?

But the seasoned TV judge and radio shock jock was relaxed and good-humoured, even open to hearing my thoughts and anecdotes, to the point of almost bordering on charming. So is the TV act, just that: a well-honed act that supports his multi-media career, or have his string of bad headlines mellowed him?

After all, wasn’t he the judge that would insult the acts and dismiss anyone who wasn’t singing the latest chart-friendly song and sported a commercial look? He doesn’t shy away from the past, and there is still fire in his ample belly. But Sandilands says the comparisons between what was required on Australian Idol and The X Factor (“the singing shows”) differs markedly from Australia’s Got Talent -and for that reason it’s the latter he prefers most of all.

“We were looking for an Australian Idol and I wanted that person to be an international singer. It’s no good being number one in Australia, you make no money. You’re barely able to keep yourself alive. If you have multiple number one hits in this country, and you don’t go outside this country, you’re f***ed. You’ve got no longevity as an artist whatsoever,” he says.

“Tim(o-Matic) does really well with his songs in this country, but he’s in NZ, he’s doing well in Asia, he’s breaking into African and European countries. It’s imperative.

“Marcia and all of them loved any gypsy who would walk in with a guitar singing some old song that they would love. But I was like, ‘No. That’s from the 1940s that’s not going to cut it anymore.'”

Sandilands says his first year on Idol was difficult because Dicko was so well-regarded and he was unfamiliar with Marcia Hines and Mark Holden’s work.

“Mark and Marcia were difficult. And I was like ‘Who the f*** are these old nobodies making my life difficult?’ I didn’t know Mark with his little flower. I didn’t know Marcia -at all. I knew Deni. But Deni’s mum who is she?” he asks.

“Now we’re besties but I didn’t like her then. I was ignorant to her past and her success and she was completely ignorant to where I came from and what I stood for and we clashed.

“It was bad. She’d storm off set and we’d argue, hold up production, she’d storm off, refuse to work with me and I’d laugh in her face. I just didn’t care.

“But the first day back on the second year she grabbed me and said, ‘You know sweetheart, I really gave you a hard time.’

“The funny thing was by year 2 when her and I had mended the bridge …. she’d sit there and say ‘You tried your best darlin’, you tried your best.’ But as they walked out she’d turn around and say ‘I hate that mother f***er!’ The real Marcia would come out. She’s hilarious.”

After Idol he was eventually cast as the tough judge on The X Factor for Seven.

“I’ve slutted around to all the shows!” he laughs.

“X Factor was a tough year. I got quite sick and I’d split up with the wife. I thought ‘Oh my god I’ve got too much going on this year.’ I was getting sick with ear infections and we were filming it in Melbourne as well, so that was a bit of a nightmare. One of them had to go and X Factor was the one that took the most work,” he recalls.

“I had teams of people because I wanted to get the best of the best working on these people. I know Ronan was whinging like an old wife saying ‘He’s got people, choreographers in there…’ and I thought ‘That’s what you should do when you’re mentoring!’ I don’t know how to dance and do high-jumps. So I brought in experts in their field.

“I saw him the other week and said ‘Wow all of you mentors now have experts!’ So they’ve got the whole thing going on that I had in the first year. (Back then) they were doing it all themselves.

“There’s no rules on mentoring. You can take them out to dinner every night and do the big D&Ms, which I wasn’t doing, I was just bringing teams of people in and trying to get the best out of each kid.

“But I like all of those guys as well. I’ve been on all the shows so I know all the judges and I’ve met them through the radio show. There’s a good batch floating around actually, between The Voice and this and X Factor.”

Now without the mentoring aspect and the pressure to find a chart-selling act, Sandilands is much happier. Counting AGT as 2 shows (first on Seven, now on Nine), he has done 4 talent shows -all with FremantleMedia. Clearly there is mutual respect.

“I just get pushed around like a sheep: into make-up, into wardrobe, go out there. I don’t really do any of the meetings or what have you,” he admits.

“But it’s a good cast, they’re a good bunch.

“Julia (Morris) is a nice lady.

“I sign to the networks usually, but I’ve worked with all the guys working on this show, especially Greg Benness Executive Producer who was on all of them. He was on my X Factor and Australia’s Got Talent. He and I have had a long relationship, not always good but very honest with other.

“He’s very passionate and honest about what he believes in and I’m very honest and passionate -and some would say direct and quite blunt- about what I think. But at the end of the day you throw all the ideas in a hat and someone is in charge and here it’s Greg Benness.

“I’m not just saying it because I’m on it now but AGT is the one I enjoy the most. I felt much more serious on Idol and X Factor because people are showing up to audition to get the record contract. That’s their life goal since they were a child and they can’t see themselves doing anything else.

“So to tell someone ‘No’ on those shows, it’s quite serious, it’s their whole life. You can’t just ruin someone’s career. I’ve told a million people no, but that’s because they would never make it.”

Sandilands also had issue with the format constraints of The X Factor in which judges must align with their own acts. He epecially hated the Fight For Your Life where low-ranking acts compete for a final place in the contest.

“It’s hard when both (acts) are good but you’ve got to get rid of one. That’s why I didn’t enjoy X Factor because of the bullshit that goes along with it where you have to pretend that your act is the best.

“I was never into it and I was getting into trouble all the time. They’d tell me ‘You can’t say another person’s guy is the best person you’ve ever seen!’ and I was like, ‘But it’s true!’ I just couldn’t do it.

“The Fighting for Your Life was against the grain for me. I still enjoyed doing it but that was one thing I didn’t like doing -pretending that whoever was in my group was far superior to everyone else’s when it’s obvious to people watching ‘That guy’s the best!’

“Altiyan Childs I voted for and in the ad break they were all ‘What the hell?'”

Childs when on to win the first season of the Seven show, but despite Altiyan’s ups and downs, Sandilands remains a supporter.

“He always got f***ed over by everyone he ever worked for because he’s a bit kooky and difficult. But this is the music business. Everyone who’s good or successful is a bit kooky and difficult, they all are. And everyone seemed a bit surprised that Altiyan was,” he says.

“I know he’s a bit of a space cadet but so are the Rolling Stones, so’s Pink, they’re all loons!

“They didn’t put a record out the first year that he won and I thought that was bullshit. I thought the whole political stuff behind the scenes…. I didn’t like it. They let him die on the vine. I know he’s had his trouble, we’ve read about them.

“But he is a true rock star. Best voice in this country. But he had the dodgy manager situation, they didn’t put his record out straight away and he got all emotional and weird and freaked out everybody. But that’s what they do, they all do that! They’re loony artists.”

He even describes co-judge Geri Halliwell is a “loop” too,

“She’s a Spice Girl, you’d expect her to be. She’s lovely and sweet but flighty. It’s like you’ve met her for the first time everytime you meet her.

“She’s super-nice and sweet but it’s a bit, ‘Do you remember who I am?’

“But that’s the real her, a bit lost in the pop-star world like they all are. Her, Kylie, Danni, Natalie Imbruglia, they’re all in their own world. They don’t live in the same sort of world that we do. They have a separate world.”

I question if he is in the same world as the rest of us?

“They’re even worse than me. They’re always getting off planes and dating Lenny Kravitz, or this person has broken up and is flying around the world… some Mick Jagger world. I’ve poked my head into that weird, zany world but I’m not interested in it. I sill get up every day and go to work. So quite normal….””

Sandilands doesn’t buy into my theory that he’s mellowed.

“I don’t think I’ve mellowed, I think (the shows) just show different sides,” he insists.

“People on this show show up, here’s their talent and they give it a go. I can dance, I can do the spoons or violin, or I have a dog on roller skates. If you don’t like it they say, ‘I thought I’d give it a go.’

“But on the singing shows they’re like, ‘What are you talking about? Everybody’s always told me I’m amazing!’ They get very defensive and it’s like you’re taking away their only chance at a career.

“I’m not going to say it’s all in the editing, because I can be a bit of an arsehole. But you’re crushing their dreams on the singing shows, whereas here they just think ‘Oh well I’ll dance in the lounge room with my dog.’

“Some of my friends say ‘You’re soft c**k! You’re not hard on them anymore.’ But what am I going to say to the lady who dances with her dog or the Chinese kid who comes out and plays with his bloody brother on the piano? They’re not trying to sell records and trying to claim that everyone loves them.”

Sandilands admits he doesn’t take notice of the ratings war, which is just as well given Nine’s talent series is losing to Seven’s. Badly. But he does have an opinion on the two Simon Cowell-owned shows cannibalisng one another in a right royal bunfight for the same audience.

“They’re both owned by the same company, Syco, and I think it’s a shame they allowed that to happen. I can imagine what sort of numbers X Factor would be doing if they didn’t put themselves against us. Why move it to 6:30 when it’s a 7:30 show only to f*** with each other? It’s just stupid.”

If the show returns next year he’s up for another round.

“They’re already talking about executing my option for next year so I don’t think they’re going to just throw it in the bin. So it’s not going anywhere as far as I’m concerned.

“I like doing it. It’s not hard.”

Arguably this year the only contestant on AGT whose popularity seems to have ‘popped’ beyond the television show is a man whose free-form dancing doesn’t appear to require talent at all.

“Little kids love him,” Sandilands insists.

“I keep him as far away from me as possible. If he won he’d take the money back to wherever the f*** he came from, Byron or wherever, and just keep dancing on the beach.

“It’s just what makes you happy, what keeps you entertained.

“You’re just trying to say ‘Can that person be entertaining for a couple of weeks to win the money? It’s a simple as that.”

Simon Cowell would probably be just as torn over Tommy ‘Salty Rain’ Franklin.

Lastly I can’t help but ask about whether Sandilands gets a fair go in the media. I’ve weighed into his antics as much as everybody else.

“This is where I’ve gone wrong. Early in my career Australian artists or actors I was quite friendly with, if they were bagged out in the Telegraph or (in) a false story they’d ring me and say ‘This is bullshit’ but they didn’t want to come on the radio…. but could I go to town on their behalf?” he says.

“So I was creating enemies on behalf of someone else. It was almost like I was the Union Representative for these people.

“I was a bit naïve in the early stages. But now I really don’t mind.

“Most newspaper journalists are lazy. They Google. They never ring or listen to the radio before (writing about it). They’re basing it on a pre-conceived perception with no information, based on reading other people’s articles which are also inaccurate.

“But I can give as much as I get.

“I used to get worked up and want revenge and plot in my mind the way I would destroy people.”

Destroying no more? Enjoying singing kids and dancing poodles? I still say he’s mellowed.

“I’m older, that’s life!” he quips.

Australia’s Got Talent airs 6:30pm Sunday on Nine.