Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones attend 27th Annual American Music Awards on January 17, 2000 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Photo / Getty Images
Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones attend 27th Annual American Music Awards on January 17, 2000 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Photo / Getty Images
Former Savage Garden frontman Darren Hayes has detailed his bitter split from bandmate Daniel Jones in a candid new interview, revealing the pair haven't spoken in years following a "major betrayal".
The chart-topping Aussie pop duo went their separate ways at the height of their career in 2001, after just two albums and a string of hit singles.
Hayes opened up about what had really caused the split during an appearance on KIIS' Kyle and Jackie O this morning, when host Kyle Sandilands made a passing reference to him having "left" Savage Garden.
"Well hang on, let me clarify that – Daniel left Savage Garden," he corrected.
"I loved it, I would have been in that band forever."
Co-host Jackie O asked if Hayes and Jones had been "good and supportive" of each other while in Savage Garden.
"Uh, no. I was really supportive of him; he absolutely hated the experience of being famous. He decided before the release of that second album (1999's Affirmation) that he didn't want that life – which is totally his right.
"A week before Affirmation came out, we had the number one single around the world (I Knew I Loved You), and Daniel had a life crisis and decided he didn't want to do it anymore. We had to convince him: 'Could you just maybe tour the album, and let's work this out later on?'"
The duo continued on for two more years, with Hayes stepping further into the limelight as the public face of Savage Garden, before a "messy" public split in 2001.
Darren Hayes claims his solo career was hobbled in Savage Garden's most lucrative market because his record label "freaked out" about his burgeoning sexuality. Photo / Supplied
"His leaving was a huge rug pulled out from under me, and for contractual reasons we couldn't really talk about it," Hayes said.
"He held that press conference where he said, 'Oh, this is the first I've heard of it,' which was such a stupid thing to say, because people thought I'd left the band."
Jones held a press conference in Brisbane's Botanic Gardens on October 5, 2001, announcing to the media that he was disappointed Savage Garden was splitting, and claiming Hayes had not consulted him in ending the band.
Hayes argued it was "pretty obvious now" who was behind the split: "He's never made music since."
Jones did briefly work behind the scenes for fellow Australian pop acts Aneiki and Bachelor Girl after the split, but later moved into the real estate business.
During a rare interview with News Corp in 2015, Jones said his time in Savage Garden was "like a bad road trip."
"I have so much forgiveness for him now. I don't like the way he went about it, but I've forgiven him," Hayes said.
But he scoffed when asked if he and Jones still spoke.
"Oh no. Nooo. When someone does that to you and doesn't apologise … I mean, Kyle still believes the lie; that's a pretty major betrayal," he said.
"It affected my career and my life. [Going solo] wasn't a planned thing."
Savage Garden had enjoyed two US number one singles and millions of US album sales by the time they went their separate ways. By contrast, Hayes' 2002 debut solo album Spin only just scraped into the US top 40.
He claimed his solo career was hobbled in Savage Garden's most lucrative market because his record label "freaked out" about his burgeoning sexuality.
"The US record label hated my solo career; they didn't promote it at all. I went from singing with Pavarotti, performing at the Olympic Games, to being someone where they said, 'We can't put him on television, because when he moves he looks too gay.'"
Hayes, who came out publicly in 2006 when he married partner Richard Cullen, said that performing as headliner at this year's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade felt like a turning point in embracing his sexuality in his music.
And now there's no holding back – his soon-to-be-released fifth album, his first release in more than a decade, is called simply Homosexual. At 50, Hayes said he was finally comfortable celebrating himself.
"I spent a long time at a major record label where being that was a problem. In my time away, I realised that in the most successful and famous period of my career, I was never really celebrated for who I was," he said.
