The Interview
got this from theage.com.au
Chris Beck talks with Mark Holden.
Australian Idol is going to be a hit this year, according to the man they sacked. Mark Holden and I are agreeing about the predictability of judges on talent shows when, slightly off the topic, he says, "You know what? Idol is going to do really, really well this year." Not because of his departure, he explains, but because there won't be competition from Kath & Kim. It seems that his ego is initiating a disclaimer that any ratings rise won't be about his departure.
Although he had the most industry experience as a performer, producer, songwriter and manager on the sparring Australian Idol judging panel, Holden was dumped earlier this year. He keeps in touch with Marcia Hines and Kyle Sandilands, but the "vitriol" appeared real with Dicko. However, now off air, Holden has shut down his aggro towards him: "What's the point?"
On all talent shows the judges are at each other's throats. It's like a template now.
You know what? It is a template. And pretty soon everyone will have been a judge on a television show. Most people that I know have been a judge on a television show.
You are being flippant. But they all have to be controversial.
On that subject, I'm a Red Symons fan. I saw a quote in the press where essentially he said, "I'm not interested in the journey, I am here to get a cheap laugh at the expense of a contestant and that's it". No pretensions of any sort of insight or advice or career help — a cheap laugh.
Is that how it ended up with you?
No. I always made an effort to add some value and make some sort of comment that would be to do with the craft.
You don't think it was diminished with your bada bing bada boom, and goony-goo-goo lines?
Those demented phrases were really just a reflection of my demented state of mind. I am actually that slightly cracked person. I've spent the better part of my life in the music business banging around the world and it has certainly taken its toll.
You were encouraged with Idol to be nutty.
No one encouraged me. I guess, in a sense, I didn't fit the mould. As you said, there are specific templates for what the role is supposed to be. I blurred the lines and I didn't fit the template, and I probably think that's why I am not there.
Unshaven and tired, battling osteoporosis, Holden, 54, slumps as he speaks with an energy that contradicts his brittle body. He has just finished touring the musical Shout! A TV pilot and a documentary about the Ashton's Circus family are "percolating". He is reflective about the march of time. On a suicide awareness site, he, along with other celebrities, has made statements to encourage people out of the blues — "Life's a bitch", he states, "sometimes no matter how young or old you are. Just is. From the outside it may look like my world is all rosy but we all have dark days where the black dog bites hard."
What brings on your dark days?
Lack of testosterone. As you get older you leach testosterone as you do calcium from your bones. As you get older you realise that your mortality is very real. In your 30s and early 40s you are still pumped up with testosterone and you still have that mindless reptilian drive towards success. And when you get past 50 something else happens. And I'm not alone in that. You start to weigh your life, you start to weigh your past. You start to weigh the future.
How have you come up in your weighing?
I've achieved an enormous amount and I'm pleased with that part in myself. I have a wife (Anna) and daughter (Kate) who love me and who I love. You need to look forward and think about the future. I spoke to my neighbour early yesterday morning; he's 87 and he is most certainly facing his mortality and we were talking about that and his advice to me was, "if you can, you must". That struck me — and from an 87-year-old man, what better advice?
Have you got enough money to stop working?
I could certainly stop. But I can't stop.
Your ambition is a plaything now?
It's not a plaything. It's more than a plaything. It's important. Life has to have meaning. You have to have something to get up for every day. You really do. One of the reasons I got involved in The Song Room (a charity assisting disadvantaged youth in the ways of the music business) was when I was in America, working in the ghetto, there were these particular twins — everything was the same except one loved music and the other didn't. The one that loved music became a producer, we wrote songs together, we had some hits with different people. He has a life. His twin brother learnt nothing at school, ended up selling drugs and going to jail. The path that they went … one because his life had meaning and the other because his life didn't have meaning. It is equally important to have something inspiring and powerful for older people as it is for younger people.
After a five-year period as a self-described "carnation boy" teen idol, Holden made LA his home in 1980 but his first US single stiffed and hard times and self-analysis followed. He read all of Carl Jung's books, which inspired him to write a song called Lady Soul, a hit for the Temptations. Happily, behind the scenes, he produced and wrote songs for David Hasselhoff, Donnie Osmond and, surprisingly, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols. When he returned to Melbourne he moulded the teenage Vanessa Amorosi into a hit machine. After her career slump they parted ways, to his dismay, but he is genuinely happy about her recent success.
You had to give up smoking and drinking because of the osteoporosis. You are still in touch with the Hoff. Have you talked about abstinence with him?
Yeah, he has had a real, real, struggle with it and continues to have a struggle with it. I said to him what I recently said to Kyle Sandilands — rule one: Don't die.
continue...
Chris Beck talks with Mark Holden.
Australian Idol is going to be a hit this year, according to the man they sacked. Mark Holden and I are agreeing about the predictability of judges on talent shows when, slightly off the topic, he says, "You know what? Idol is going to do really, really well this year." Not because of his departure, he explains, but because there won't be competition from Kath & Kim. It seems that his ego is initiating a disclaimer that any ratings rise won't be about his departure.
Although he had the most industry experience as a performer, producer, songwriter and manager on the sparring Australian Idol judging panel, Holden was dumped earlier this year. He keeps in touch with Marcia Hines and Kyle Sandilands, but the "vitriol" appeared real with Dicko. However, now off air, Holden has shut down his aggro towards him: "What's the point?"
On all talent shows the judges are at each other's throats. It's like a template now.
You know what? It is a template. And pretty soon everyone will have been a judge on a television show. Most people that I know have been a judge on a television show.
You are being flippant. But they all have to be controversial.
On that subject, I'm a Red Symons fan. I saw a quote in the press where essentially he said, "I'm not interested in the journey, I am here to get a cheap laugh at the expense of a contestant and that's it". No pretensions of any sort of insight or advice or career help — a cheap laugh.
Is that how it ended up with you?
No. I always made an effort to add some value and make some sort of comment that would be to do with the craft.
You don't think it was diminished with your bada bing bada boom, and goony-goo-goo lines?
Those demented phrases were really just a reflection of my demented state of mind. I am actually that slightly cracked person. I've spent the better part of my life in the music business banging around the world and it has certainly taken its toll.
You were encouraged with Idol to be nutty.
No one encouraged me. I guess, in a sense, I didn't fit the mould. As you said, there are specific templates for what the role is supposed to be. I blurred the lines and I didn't fit the template, and I probably think that's why I am not there.
Unshaven and tired, battling osteoporosis, Holden, 54, slumps as he speaks with an energy that contradicts his brittle body. He has just finished touring the musical Shout! A TV pilot and a documentary about the Ashton's Circus family are "percolating". He is reflective about the march of time. On a suicide awareness site, he, along with other celebrities, has made statements to encourage people out of the blues — "Life's a bitch", he states, "sometimes no matter how young or old you are. Just is. From the outside it may look like my world is all rosy but we all have dark days where the black dog bites hard."
What brings on your dark days?
Lack of testosterone. As you get older you leach testosterone as you do calcium from your bones. As you get older you realise that your mortality is very real. In your 30s and early 40s you are still pumped up with testosterone and you still have that mindless reptilian drive towards success. And when you get past 50 something else happens. And I'm not alone in that. You start to weigh your life, you start to weigh your past. You start to weigh the future.
How have you come up in your weighing?
I've achieved an enormous amount and I'm pleased with that part in myself. I have a wife (Anna) and daughter (Kate) who love me and who I love. You need to look forward and think about the future. I spoke to my neighbour early yesterday morning; he's 87 and he is most certainly facing his mortality and we were talking about that and his advice to me was, "if you can, you must". That struck me — and from an 87-year-old man, what better advice?
Have you got enough money to stop working?
I could certainly stop. But I can't stop.
Your ambition is a plaything now?
It's not a plaything. It's more than a plaything. It's important. Life has to have meaning. You have to have something to get up for every day. You really do. One of the reasons I got involved in The Song Room (a charity assisting disadvantaged youth in the ways of the music business) was when I was in America, working in the ghetto, there were these particular twins — everything was the same except one loved music and the other didn't. The one that loved music became a producer, we wrote songs together, we had some hits with different people. He has a life. His twin brother learnt nothing at school, ended up selling drugs and going to jail. The path that they went … one because his life had meaning and the other because his life didn't have meaning. It is equally important to have something inspiring and powerful for older people as it is for younger people.
After a five-year period as a self-described "carnation boy" teen idol, Holden made LA his home in 1980 but his first US single stiffed and hard times and self-analysis followed. He read all of Carl Jung's books, which inspired him to write a song called Lady Soul, a hit for the Temptations. Happily, behind the scenes, he produced and wrote songs for David Hasselhoff, Donnie Osmond and, surprisingly, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols. When he returned to Melbourne he moulded the teenage Vanessa Amorosi into a hit machine. After her career slump they parted ways, to his dismay, but he is genuinely happy about her recent success.
You had to give up smoking and drinking because of the osteoporosis. You are still in touch with the Hoff. Have you talked about abstinence with him?
Yeah, he has had a real, real, struggle with it and continues to have a struggle with it. I said to him what I recently said to Kyle Sandilands — rule one: Don't die.
continue...
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