The Girl Next Door Grows Up
SPOTLIGHT: You’ve always tried to fight your image. Isn’t it nice to be the girl next door and to be liked by everybody?
Newton-John: Yes, that was nice, but I just wanted to have a broader appeal than that. I don’t fight it any more, because I still have it, no matter what I do. I’ve made some albums where I really tried to go against myself, and when I look at them now, I’m not comfortable with them.
SPOTLIGHT: You’ve been through a very difficult time recently. What would your message be to other women who suffer from cancer?
Newton-John: To be positive about it and really to believe that you will be OK, and, obviously, to get the right treatment. I would say the sooner you discover things like that, the better. So if you have a lump or you don’t feel right, go and see about it right away, because the earlier it’s detected, the better the chance you have -and there’s a very high recovery rate from breast cancer.
I did chemotherapy plus acupuncture and yoga. In Germany you have incredible homeopathy you’re very fortunate. In fact, some of the homeopathic treatment that I was on was from Germany. We had to send people to Germany to get it for me. It’s also important to think really positively and do some kind of spiritual thing for yourself. Whether it’s meditation or going to church or whatever you’re into, make sure you have a spiritual connection to help heal. Your mind is a very great part of the healing process.
When I wrote the album called Gaia, I was in Australia recovering from chemotherapy and really had no plans to work. But these songs kept coming out of me because I’d been through so much. I was going to write a book, but it ended up being songs. I wasn’t going to record them, but people said to me: “You really should do this album, because maybe you can help other women.”
SPOTLIGHT: The subtitle is “One Woman’s Journey”. Where did your journey begin and where did it end?
Newton-John: It hasn’t ended, and it’s not going to end for a long time. I’m still on my journey. There are three environmental songs, and the others are just personal. Mostly they were taken from a three-year period in my life. But that three-year period is representative of my whole life.
SPOTLIGHT: It is also your spiritual journey. Are you a religious person?
Newton-John: I believe “spiritual” means that you are a person who lives kindly without following any real dogma. I don’t really follow one particular form of religion. I think each of them has something to offer, and I take little bits from each and try to learn from each.
SPOTLIGHT: Gaia is a very personal album. Does it mean more to you than all the others you’ve done before?
Newton-John: Well, the others have had different meanings to me. They were career things. This was really personal, because I’ve written a song on an album before, but I’ve never written the whole album before.
SPOTLIGHT: Didn’t you find it difficult to open up so much about everything that you felt?
Newton-John: No, not after what I’d been through. I think if you’ve been through cancer, then nothing really scares you much. So it wasn’t as hard after that. I think before that I couldn’t have done it.
SPOTLIGHT: Didn’t you find it difficult to open up so much about everything that you felt?
Newton-John: No, not after what I’d been through. 1 think if you’ve been through cancer, then nothing really scares you much. So it wasn’t as hard after that. I think before that I couldn’t have done it.
SPOTLIGHT: You’ve lived in England and Australia and America. Where do you feel at home?
Newton-John: In Australia and America I feel at home. Australia has a special meaning for me. When I get there, I never want to leave. I spent my youngest years there, and there’s something about the light, the sounds of the animals, the birds in the morning and the smells; they are like nowhere else on the planet. It’s really special for me.
SPOTLIGHT: And in America, how do you live?
Newton-John: I live in Malibu on the beach. It’s very sunny and bright. There are lots of birds going by, and I see the dolphins nearly every day. Most days I take my daughter to school early; then I come back and do my phone calls; then I take my dogs for a walk, do some shopping for the house, work with my secretary for a while, do my business. Then I pick my daughter Chloe up from school, do homework with her, take her to a friend’s house or do errands with her, make dinner, have dinner and put her to bed; and that’s the day.
SPOTLIGHT: Is Chloe planning a career in show business?
Newton-John: I think she is. She’s very talented. She has a beautiful voice. She writes songs; she writes poetry; she acts, loves to perform. Two days before Christmas, I was thinking, “Oh, now I’ll make Christmas cookies with Chloe because I have time, and we’ll be a mother and daughter.” So I said, “Come on, Chloe, we’re going to make Christmas cookies.” She was sitting at the kitchen table, and she looked up at me and said, “Mum, I’m writing a script. And right now I’m drawing the costumes, so you make the cookies!”
SPOTLIGHT: You come from an academic background. Your grandfather was the German Nobel Prize-winner Max Born, your father was a university professor. Were you very intelligent at school?
Newton-John: Don’t let my daughter hear this: I always felt like I didn’t know what was going on and that the other kids did. I think I didn’t concentrate. I was day-dreaming. I failed music, and I never really grasped the reading of it, so I’ve always done everything just by ear and kind of muddled through.
SPOTLIGHT: Was there any pressure from your parents?
Newton-John: Yes, they wanted me to finish school and go to the university. My mother always used to say to me, “What are you going to do if you don’t make it singing? You have no credentials.” So I was really lucky. I would have worked with animals somehow. To be a vet was my first dream, but you have to be good at math, so that had to be ruled out.
SPOTLIGHT: You look fantastic. Do you do anything special?
Newton-John: I walk on the beach nearly every day that’s my regimen. I haven’t been very good as far as the gym [is concerned]. I just seem to be genetically lucky. My mother looks good for her age, and I think if you feel good on the inside, that’s what makes you look good [on the] outside.
SPOTLIGHT: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
Newton-John: I’d love to do another film with a really terrific director some time, but most of the things I want to do are personal things. I’d love to have time to paint. And I’d love to learn pottery. I’ve just started horse riding again with my daughter.