John Tesh: Welcome back to the John Tesh Radio show, I'm your host. We have a special guest on the line right now. He's the guy you've heard singing some of your favorite songs, "Truly, Madly, Deeply", "I Knew I Loved You". It's Darren Hayes, the lead singer of Savage Garden. We've got a lot to talk to him about.

John Tesh: Hey Darren, thanks for joining us!

Darren Hayes: Hey John. It's really good to be speaking with you.

John Tesh: We are so glad to have you on the show. I can't tell you how many requests we get every week for your music but it's probably no surprise to you. Tell me how many albums has Savage Garden sold?

Darren Hayes: With our first and second record, I think we're up to about 17 or 18 million albums. I know the first album did something like 11 and this second album hasn't even been out a year yet and it's done about 7 million worldwide so we're pretty amazed by that. We certainly never expected that 10 years ago when we sat in each others bedrooms just dreaming of a career in music.

John Tesh: What were your hopes when you first started Savage Garden?

Darren Hayes: I was 18 when I met Daniel and I'm 28 today and my priorities have definitely changed. I think, you know, back then I just wanted to take on the world. I just wanted to be a Rock Star. Wanted to be famous... and it was just all about getting a record deal and getting our songs played on the radio. We didn't really think too much about the master plan. I know that we concentrated on the songs. We knew that if we had good songs then the rest of that would fall into place and today..it's funny, I don't really care about fame at all anymore. It's more about, you know, a certain level of performance. Hitting the right notes on stage and writing songs that I think sort of really hit the mark and strike a cord emotionally.

John Tesh: And they keep hitting the mark. When you write an emotional song, do you have to be in that kind of state yourself? An emotional state?

Darren Hayes: Yeah, I very rarely write from contentment. So if I'm content I just want to sit on the couch all day and eat potato chips and get fat (laughs).

John Tesh: Yeah (laughs)

Darren Hayes: But you know if my heart is broken or I'm desperately chasing someone, or if I'm feeling ambitious and if I'm feeling melancholy, they are very extreme emotions and they definitely inspire me to write songs.. and work out! (laughs)

John Tesh: What about a song like "Truly, Madly, Deeply"? What inspired you to write that?

Darren Hayes: Everything I've ever sung about is about my life. That was a song about the love of my life and it was a song that was always intended to be a b-side actually. I thought it was too personal. Go figure. And the producer heard it and just said you know that's a smash hit single. I've never really been good with that stuff. I just write songs and I'm probably too close to them. It was a song about my personal life and it became the world's love song to the point that it's almost like I'm detached from Truly or detached from "I Knew I Love You" because those songs become such an anthem for other people, which is great. It's a wonderful thing.

*plays "Truly, Madly Deeply"*

John Tesh: We have the guy that wrote and sings that song on the phone right now...Darren Hayes from Savage Garden. Darren, I know you guys were on tour for like a year and a half before you decided to take a break. But now that you do have a little bit of time what do you do for fun?

Darren Hayes: I'm really sort of spoiled in that I get to fly around the world and do some pretty incredible things. A lot of the most incredible things happen to me on the road and my hobby is my job. So when I'm not doing this, it's quality of life. It would be cooking dinner for 3 or 4 people at my house. You know I bought a house in California this year and I've been doing it up. That was a big project and a big source of fulfillment for me to sort of put down roots and get a home. And really getting in touch with myself. I've really gotten into yoga as much of a cliche as that might sound. It's cause I'm so the antithesis of LA. I'm not into the LA scene at all and I live in San Francisco and by accident I've gotten into yoga and it's been something that has really changed my outlook on life and the view of myself and my body. It's taught me a lot of compassion for myself and patience and understanding. And I'm writing a screen play. I love to write so I sit down and write.

John Tesh: Does it take the same kind of inspiration you use for your songs to write a screen play?

Darren Hayes: It does. I've been toying around with the idea of writing a screen play for a long time because I kind of...I came about this, about facing it, when I...you know the first thing that I was supposed to study at the University was acting and I got into a pretty shishe (sp?) school in Australia and I was supposed to study directing and acting and there wasn't a musical component to it. I knew that I just wanted to be a performer but I didn't play an instrument so I couldn't get into a musical conservatory so I thought..well I'll just be an actor. And I chickened out. A lot of my friends did it. For 4 years while I studied education at the university I was always in their plays and I just studied writing and things like that. I think the older I get I would be more interested in having like a production company. And I look at actors like Steve Basheeny (sp?) and he's such a wonderful character actor. That would be the kind of thing I'd like to do in terms of being a spokesperson. I mean that is ultimately what I do in this band, and with music is that I just communicate verbally. So although...I mean music will always be my number one thing, I mean it's....I'm the sort of person that I can't drive a car..if a song I like comes on the radio I have to pull over otherwise we'll have an accident...cause it takes over my whole body.

John Tesh: (laughs) I think your songs have the same effect on your fans. We're talking to Darren Hayes from Savage Garden. And you have at last count 17 million fans. Do you think we're going to hear some solo stuff from you soon?

Darren Hayes: Yeah, I hope so. I mean basically next year it's all about..you know its a solo thing next year. I'm gonna take some time off. I'm going to try to do a movie at the start of the year. Just something really simple and short because I've been wanting to do it for a long time. And work on the screen play. Finish writing this album that I've been working on and toward the end of next year I'll probably put out a single and my own record for a while and just see what happens. But, ultimately if I could continue making records and then occasionally....you know, I mean if I could die and have had written a film and had it produced and had a company..you know, even if it was just a tiny film..I think that would make me really happy.

John Tesh: Well, you've made a lot of people really, really happy with the melodies and the lyrics that you've written. And Darren, you've made us happy by being on our show today. Thank you for joining us. I was a pleasure talking to you. And we really look forward to hearing your new stuff soon. I hope you'll send us some rough mixes.

Darren Hayes: Well, it's been great to you too John and hopefully I'll talk to you another time.

John Tesh: All right.

*plays "I Knew I Loved You"*

John Tesh: "I Knew I Loved You" from Savage Garden and my new best friend, singer Darren Hayes. Thanks for joining us today Darren.

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