Now It's Olivia's Biggest Moment
By Chrissie Camp
WHILE Olivia Newton-John was waging her very public battle with breast cancer, she kept a diary. She recorded her fear, her depression and her struggle to understand why she had been dealt such a harsh blow. Her intention was to write a book, but when she triumphantly beat the disease and returned to her home in Byron Bay, NSW, she found her outpourings took on a different form. I would wake up in the middle of the night with bits of songs in my head and have to get up and work on them,
she says. They came in big chunks, melodies and lyrics. I didn't know where it was going to lead, I just wanted to put them down. It was cathartic. I felt like I was baring myself, which I have never really done before.
With husband Matt Lattanzi away working and daughter Chloe in school, she began writing songs in earnest for the first time in her career. The result Gaia (Mother Earth), recorded in Byron Bay, is her first album of original material since 1988.
The project begins with a single, No Matter What You Do, released this week. Olivia's belief in the record has prompted her to grant one interview to TV WEEK to talk about its conception. It is also Olivia's first interview as an Australian citizen. Born in the UK and based in the U.S. for years, she has always needed a visa to enter Australia, but now has dual passports. Curled up on a sofa, the 45-year- old entertainer says the battles of recent years have left her stronger and more purposeful about her life and career. She says she also knows there is a possibility the cancer could return. I am healthy. I feel good, but yes, there is a chance it (the cancer) could come back. But I could get hit by a bus, anything could happen,
she says. Of course there is always a chance, but I don't intend to let that happen. I'm not frightened. I am trying to live day by day because that's all we have, the moment we are in, 80 if you are busy projecting tomorrow, next month, next year, you are wasting the moment you are in.
I've put my priorities in order.
Olivia no longer questions why she got cancer. Exploring her spirituality and meditating daily has provided the answers. One song on the album is called Why Me?, and lyrically says: Don't say why me, why not me is the thing
. Another is called Not Going To Give In To It. I don't say why me? I say, why not me. I had to learn something from it (having cancer) and what I've learnt is everything I've gone through,
she says. I have much more compassion for people who have suffered. Everyone goes through something, but major turmoil for me. Fighting my cancer and seeing my daughter's best friend die of cancer; my business (Koala Blue) went; my father died the day I found out I had cancer ... it was like everything. But you can't grow if you don't go through pain and deal with it, and I've learnt through this not to be frightened of change. I feel much more of a purpose in what I do now.
Olivia says these feelings have caused major changes in her attitude to her career. I feel that other than just being a singer or an entertainer, maybe I can do some good. I've learnt to use this gift I was given, this voice, to use it to help,
she says. There are things I have done in the past that were good shows or good for my career or something, but now I'm really motivated by what's important to me. When I do things now I want them to be beneficial.
That's why she changed her mind and accepted a hosting role on the Nine Network's environmental series tentatively titled Wild Life, which has been filming worldwide this year. Seeing a report on the reluctance of the Japanese to adhere to an international treaty protecting sperm whales sent her into a spin. I really got emotional about it,
she says, and I said to my husband, I think I've really got to do this show. Somehow I can help, because people might watch if it's me because they are curious or whatever and then they'll get the knowledge.
I feel very strongly about the state of the planet. When I was writing this album I felt the planet was speaking to me. Women, I think, are particularly attached to the earth.
Although it was not her aim, Olivia also hopes the album will help others struggling with personal battles. I've had a lot of letters from people. I had one the other day from a woman whose daughter was dying of cancer and she didn't know what to do. She had heard I'd made this record called Not Going To Give In To It and she asked for a copy. So there are all these people out there who are needy or who have gone through what I have, so some of the things I have written might help.
Olivia does not have a record contract outside Australia, but hopes Gaia will gain interest in the U.S. and be released there. It's a far cry from the heady days of stardom in the Seventies, but Olivia says she is not concerned if the record is not a success on the charts. For me, it wasn't so much how well it was going to do. I have done something that was really important to me and really enjoyable,
she says. I just want people to know the album is out there and to have a listen to it and hopefully get something out of it.
Olivia and her family will continue to live in Byron Bay, although Matt is globe trotting for a series of television documentaries. Olivia is the special guest on a Ray Martin special, screening on Nine on Thursday, September 8. Gaia is scheduled for release on September 12.