Back With A Heart

thanks to Kay

Olivia Newton-John was destined to become an entertainer. According to my family, I was always humming and singing when I was a very little girl, the performer said while reminiscing about her career's inception during a phone conversation from her Los Angeles home. Newton-John's fondness for music wasn't really surprising, Both of her parents loved music and she was constantly exposed to songs from their extensive record collection. I grew up in Australia the family moved there from England in 1953 when I was five after my father was offered a job as a professor at the University there, she said. So I went to school in Australia and I still kind of feel that Australia is my home; I have a home there and another one here. I love both places.

Newton-John pursued her entertainment career while attending high school in Melbourne. "I was 14 when I started singing with three other girls; we kind of had a little singing group, she recalled. On weekends we'd sing at clubs and we'd rehearse during the week. However, the mid-week rehearsals left less time for studying, and the group was forced to disband. My mom didn't want me doing it any more; she said that it was distracting me from my schoolwork, she said. However, Newton-John didn't keep her show-biz aspirations in limbo for long. My sister Rona was married to a man who had a coffee shop in Melbourne and I went in there with her one night. There was a man up on the stage singing and playing guitar and I started singing harmonies from my table. One day he invited me up to sing with him, and then it sort of became a regular thing that I would sing along with him on weekends. He also taught me a few chords on the guitar.

The coffee shop stint seemed to be the stimulant needed to launch Olivia's career. A customer heard her sing there and suggested that she compete in the local leg of a national talent contest. I entered the contest and the career kind of got going from there. She won several other contests, including one that awarded her a boat trip to England. In the meantime, her career was meeting with success in Australia, and she couldn't find the time to take the prize trip to England. Time was running out, and she was reminded that she had to take the trip or lose it. Although Olivia wasn't anxious to leave her adopted homeland, her mother (Newton-John's parents divorced when she was 11 and she was living with her mother) had other ideas. Mother wanted me to go to the university in London, although my mind was kind of set on a singing career by then, she said. So we left Australia I think I was just 16 and we took the boat to England. I intended to come home within three months but ended up staying for several years.

During those years, she was signed to Decca Records and recorded her first single, Till You Say You'll Be Mine. The record didn't generate great sales, nor did her early British stage career take off. Olivia became homesick and kept booking tickets back to Australia, which her mother kept canceling. Then a friend from Australia, Pat Farrar, came to England and we did an act together for a couple of years we were called Pat and Olivia, she said. We did television, we did army bases and we toured Europe; we did a lot of stuff. We later worked together on a clothing line (Koala Blue). Pat and I knew each other since I was 14. Anyway, Pat's visa ran out and she returned to Australia, but I remained in England.

To make a long story short I recorded my first successful record which was If Not For You, she continued. It was a big hit in England. I had some more hits in England, and then in 1973 I had my first hit in America and then I moved here. The song, Let Me Be There, was released here in November, 1973. It reached number six on the pop charts and topped the country charts. The song established Newton-John as a country singer and also earned her a 1973 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocalist. The following year, 1974, the hugely successful I Honestly Love You was released, giving Olivia her first number one US single. It also earned her Grammies for Best Female Pop Performance and Record of the Year, and the Country Music Association's award for Top Female Vocalist of 1974. Ironically, the Peter Allen penned I Honestly Love You, had been offered to Anne Murray and Helen Reddy and they both turned it down. However, at Reddy's suggestion, Allen sent the song to Olivia.

Her recording successes were followed by the launching of a film career, namely her role as Sandy in Grease, in which she played opposite John Travolta. The film became the highest grossing musical movie of all time and the soundtrack from the film spawned three top five singles for Newton-John. Other films, television appearances and records followed. Her best known songs, in addition to the aforementioned, include Have You Ever Been Mellow, Summer Nights, Hopelessly Devoted To You, Xanadu and Physical, a sensuous number which sold over two million copies and topped Billboard's Hot 100 chart for ten consecutive weeks following its release in 1981.

In the mid-1980s and early 90s, Olivia Newton-John took a self imposed work hiatus to spend time with her daughter Chloe, now 14, and other family members, while recuperating from breast cancer. But now she's back and more energized than ever. Her most recent album, 1998's Back with A Heart, highlights yet another of Newton-John's talents songwriting. I wrote all but one song on that album, she said. I just love writing; it's such a wonderful creative experience.

When we mentioned her role in her current movie, Sordid Lives, she laughed heartily. I had a great time playing the role of a character that was a person very different from myself. She continued with a strong southern accent, It was really fun to be Bitsy Mae from Texas. In what has been described as a hilarious comedy, Olivia portrays Bitsy Mae Harling, a tattooed ex-con with a notorious reputation. Olivia is a knockout, noted a Woman's Day critic who was privy to a sneak preview of the movie. Olivia said that the film's release date has yet to be determined.

She also discussed her March weekend visit to Vatican City where, at the personal invitation of Pope John Paul II, she headlined a charitable event. He invited me to come to the Vatican where they had a special saints day for people who were very sick, and he gave a blessing on the square prior to the concert. About 7,000 were seated in the concert hall, and probably half of them were ill. It was a great honor to be a part of this. And then I personally met with Pope John and my daughter and my boyfriend also got to meet him. As Olivia clutched the Pope's hand in hers, he handed her a white box that contained a set of rosary beads. It was the most wonderful moment in my life, Newton-John said.

Newton-John's busy schedule does not deter her from lending her voice, time and talent to help others conquer illness. Her personal advice to Whoot readers is: Always examine your breasts regularly to see if there's anything abnormal. The person to judge if there's anything going on with your body is you, so be in tune with it. If you're suspicious of anything go to a doctor, and if you still don't feel right and they're telling you everything is right, pursue your instincts, because we as women have incredible instincts and we should always listen to them. She continued, Try to eat healthfully and to keep spiritually and mentally in balance. And if you find that you do have breast cancer and have to go through a treatment, keep a really positive mind because your mind is a real part of the healing process.

She also noted that she is the spokesperson for the Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC), a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about environmental toxins that affect children's health. It's an emnronmentally based group that was started by my dearest friends, Nancy and Jim Chuda, who lost their daughter Colette to cancer when she was five, she said. She was my daughter's best friend. They believe that Colette's death was environmentally related, so the push of this organization is to inform parents of the dangers in the home that children face, and the dangers in the food that they eat and the pollution in our environment. She suggested checking the web at www.chec@checnet.org for additional information.

In closing her interview Newton-John noted, I'm very fortunate. I have a wonderful daughter that I adore and my boyfriend Patrick (Patrick McDermott) is lovely. I'm a very lucky person and I'm very happy. Olivia is looking forward to her return to Atlantic City, and promises that her show will include the hits that audiences expect to hear, as well as a couple of new songs that haven't been performed here before. It's a nice simple show; nothing complicated, she said. Just me and my music.