Rewind 63
Interview by Katrina O'Brien
The chart-topping singer and breast cancer survivor is often confronted with photos she'd rather forget but this one evokes fond memories of her easygoing childhood.
This photo’s funny, isn’t it? So cute. I did an ad campaign for Pond’s face cream when I I was about 15 but by the look on my face, I would say this could easily have been my first shoot (which took place earlier the same year).
I don’t look too thrilled with it. I look kind of annoyed there. It might have been the moment my hair was pulling in the peg.
It was taken by Bob Whitaker, who later did a lot of the Beatles’ photographs and travelled with them. I think my sister, Rona, who was modelling and acting at the time, was doing some pictures with him. I was just at my sister’s home in Melbourne and he thought this would be a funny picture. It wasn’t an ad - it was for a book and I don’t think I’d even started singing yet.
It’s hard to remember what I was like but I think from what people tell me, I was a pretty easygoing and happy-go-lucky kid. We all have dreams of what we wanted to do and I think my dream at that age was to work with animals in some way.
My father was very musical- he had a beautiful voice - my mother could sing and my sister left school to become an actress. But my family was very academic. My father was a professor and my grandfather won a Nobel Prize for physics [in 1954]. There was a lot of insinuated pressure that I would go on to university and get a degree in something. But I wasn’t academically minded.
Singing kind of evolved for me. I loved music and singing and I did some acting at school, then went into a talent contest Sing Sing Sing with Johnny O’Keefe and won it. The prize was a trip to England. I was very lucky and it grew from there. Thank goodness I went into that contest and won it because God knows what I would have done. If I hadn’t been able to sing, I don’t know what I would be doing now.
Of course I’ve changed since this photo was taken. I’m in my 50s now but I think your basic personality is there from the minute you take your first breath. From looking at my daughter, Chloe [now 19], and remembering what she was like when she was first born, that little person is still there.
I think when you’re young, you’re full of all kinds of insecurities or overconfidences or a mixture of both. it’s hard to remember exactly what I was thinking when this photo was taken but it makes me laugh.
I have to deal with seeing lots of photos of myself. Fans come up to me when I do shows and they put these really awful pictures under my nose and want me to sign them and I go, “Are you serious? Do you want me to sign that?”
So compared to those, this is probably quite nice. It’s part of my life and it’s a nice memory.
Fast forward
Some women are worried about getting old. I think it’s lucky if you can get old. It’s been 13 years for me since being diagnosed with breast cancer and I feel very lucky. I’ve recently become more involved because I wanted to make sure I was around.
I helped create Liv Kit, a special aid that encourages women to self-examine. We also started the Liv Foundation so we can raise money and put that towards building a hospital [the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre) in Melbourne.
This year, I’ll be recording an album in Australia for a breast cancer project.
I come back to Australia [from California] two or three times a year but I lost my mum in 2003 and it’s a very different thing coming back here now.
Editor's note
- This picture was taken as a comment on the fate of Australian housewife in the 60s (tied to the kitchen sink or tied to the washing line in this case).
We have some of those early Aussie face cream ads Olivia mentioned.