Olivia's song of joy
I honestly love you
After her traumatic marriage breakdown from actor Matt Lattanzi, Olivia is finally enjoying a lovely long-term romance with cameraman and lighting gaffer Patrick McDermott.
Olivia met LA-based Patrick eight years ago while shooting a commercial in Los Angeles. Olivia doesn’t often talk about the man she’s hopelessly devoted to but she does say: “We have a lovely relationship. But yes, I like my independence and it is still too soon to talk marriage.”
Music stalwart Olivia Newton-John is ready to conquer the charts again with a new album - and it could be her last.
Olivia Newton-John retiring? It’s hard to imagine the gorgeous 56-year old, who could easily pass as thirty something, even contemplating an end t her recording career. But as she reveals exclusively to Fresh, the thought, “This could be my last one”, crossed her mind during the making of her new album, Indigo-Women of Song.
“I don’t think it will be but at the time I thought ‘What a nice way to go out’,” she says reflectively. “Sometimes when I’ve been working really hard I feel I’ve had enough and just want to stop. But then my creative side, which is very powerful, kicks in and off I go again.”
On the other hand she admits that being a public figure can wear pretty thin and that she is feeling rather jaded at the increasingly invasive nature of the media.
Her concerns in particular are for young female performers, although surprisingly not for her 18-year-old daughter Chloe, who has followed her footsteps into the music industry. “Chloe has good instincts and good taste, and I trust her judgement.” she says. “She has also grown up in a different world so things don’t bother her as much.”
The star shudders as she recalls her own introduction to the prying press.
“I was very young and on tour when someone photographed over the fence when I was sunbaking,” she says.
Olivia has leant to “drop-out” in places where she feels safe. “Such as my home in Malibu and my farm in Australia,” she says “I love hanging out with friends who knew me ‘back when’ and have no delusions about who I am.”
“These are people who know me beyond the image and see me just as their friend, not Olivia Newton-John with a big sign over me.”
When her dearly loved mother, Irene, passed away in August 2003, she lost her closest friend. During a whirlwind publicity tour for Indigo she confesses how hard it is to return to Melbourne and accept that she won’t see her mother.
“It’s suddenly become very real,” she says sadly.
“She was my toughest critic and my greatest ally, I got my strength from her,” she muses. “My mother was a very powerful woman and I think I must have inherited some of that.”
She suddenly laughs: “I also inherited a stubborn streak from her.” Olivia confesses that it was this trait which saved her from well-meaning singing coaches who tried to change one of the best-known voices in the world.
Retaining her individuality has always been very important to Olivia, and while Indigo is a tribute album to women who have influenced her over the years, she insists she never copied anyone’s style. “I just took from them the realisation that what made them special was their uniqueness,” she says.
At 15 her idol was protest singer Joan Baez, who she now acknowledges on Indigo by singing her famous anthem, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Visibly upset by the thought of war, Olivia admits she was never “brave” enough to follow the folksinger down the protest road.
“I don’t know enough about politics,” she says. “But I will never understand how people can kill each other over a belief system.”
Indigo-Women of Song (Festival Mushroom Records) includes songs originally made famous by Karen Carpenter, Minnie Ripperton, Nina Simone, Joan Baez and Cilla Black.
A timely message
The Aussie icon maintains that looking good is an internal exercise as well as external. Besides inheriting great genes “My Mum looked fabulous even at 89” - Olivia attributes her eternally youthful appearance to her attitude and state of mind.
Although living a hectic existence, she has discovered how to use time to her advantage.
“Even if I only have an hour to spare I can make those 60 minutes very special. Everything is made up of moments, so I try to find as many moments in a day that are mine. I might just go out in the sun for 10 minutes or walk by a river or pop into a gym and work on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Even if they’re not extensive periods, they are mine.”
More from Indigo: Women Of Song.