Coming 2024 Holiday Season:

Read a behind-the-curtain story about what I had to do to get my 2019 interview with Olivia Newton-John to happen in my soon-to-be-released book, Behind The Curtain: The Mistakes, Lessons Learned & Triumphs of Interviewing Celebrities.

2011 Interview:

In this interview, Olivia answered my call again to reveal:

• How she stays grounded
• New Music
• Building the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre
• Guest-starring on Glee
• So much more

Olivia Newton-John

 

I think because I grew up in Australia, I'm lucky with my upbringing and my friends. I've always had a realistic take on who I am and not an overblown idea of what I was capable of. I guess low self-esteem has been a pretty good thing (hahaha). I'm just a grounded person in general and I like to do grounded things.

 

When I was younger, when I got home, I would jump on my horse and ride, but now-a-days, I do the laundry or go for a walk or bike ride or my husband and I go out into nature somehow. I just like the basic things that are important to me. I do go to the red carpet events and enjoy them, but that is not the center of my world in anyway.

 

2. Adam Rothenberg (Me): What has been your proudest moment so far: either professionally or personally or both? 

 

Olivia Newton-John: Personally, would be of course the birth of my daughter. I don't think anything comes close to having a child and that moment when she was born and watching her grow up has been the greatest joy in my life. 

 

Adam Rothenberg (Me): It seems that you have a very close relationship with her which you're very lucky to have. 

 

Olivia Newton-John: Yeah, we do. She's a wonderful girl.

 

Olivia Newton-John and her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi

 

3. Adam Rothenberg (Me): I'm very excited because this December you are headed out on tour again. What excites you about this upcoming tour? 

 

Olivia Newton-John: Seeing my band again and seeing the public again. I haven't been on tour in a while here in the states. I did a few shows in South America earlier this year. This is a very short tour, but it will be fun to catch up with everybody and sing again because it's part of who I am. I love to sing, so it will be a lot of fun. 

 

Adam Rothenberg (Me): Well, we're looking forward to it. 

 

Olivia Newton-John: Thank You.

 

4. Adam Rothenberg (Me): You have a new movie coming out this January called A Few Best Men. What attracted you to the movie? What do you hope audiences come away with after seeing the film? 

 

Olivia Newton-John: I just hope they laugh because that's what it is. It's just a wacky, outrageous comedy. I think everyone just needs a good laugh now-a-days. And the boys are so, so funny in it.

 

 

5. Adam Rothenberg (Me): You look exactly the same as you did when you first started out, at least I feel you do.

 

Olivia Newton-John: Oh, you're too kind. 

 

Adam Rothenberg (Me): What is your secret to looking so great and feeling so great? 

 

Olivia Newton-John: I think I'm really lucky. I'm in love. I have a wonderful husband and I'm really happy, which really counts. I'm doing things that I feel strongly and passionate about like building the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre and working with my husband John on his Amazon Rain Herb company, both of which are very important to me. I mostly take his herbs everyday. We travel 90% of the time because I go with him for his work and he comes with me for mine, and I think without the herbage, I wouldn't be feeling so good. I'm very grateful for his company and his herbs. His skin care Amazon Rain is really amazing as well, which I use.

 

6. Adam Rothenberg (Me): You are working on an album of dance remixes. What can fans expect from this album? What made you want to do an album of all dance music? 

 

Olivia Newton-John: It just kind of happened because in Australia a mixer down there, Dan Murphy, took "Magic" and remixed it and then they did a video that was really special and that kind of has sparked a lot of interest with remixes and we had a lot of inquiries from remixers about it.

 

I had been making some tracks with my nephew, Brett Goldsmith, in Australia for the last 8 years. We would sometimes to get together to write a song or play around and these tracks were just there and we thought why don't we put those out and record some new ones and we've got ourselves an album that hasn't been released before.

 

Also with the new movie, A Few Best Men, John Farrar has written a song for me called "Weightless" and that is on the soundtrack and the closing song in the movie and that is a dance track. So it's like I've kind of got two different projects going on with dance music, which is not something I've planned on, but here's a whole new genre. 

 

Adam Rothenberg (Me): I'm very excited about this. 

 

Olivia Newton-John: Oh, thank you.

 

 

7. Adam Rothenberg (Me): In 2010, you starred in two episodes of Glee. What did that whole experience mean to you? What was it like to record a new version of "Physical" and get to do it with Jane Lynch? 

 

Olivia Newton-John: It was just fun. I met Ryan Murphy and he asked me if I'd like to be part of the show and at that time, I hadn't even seen the show, which I was a bit embarrassed about because it was such a big hit, but I had been traveling, for a change (haha), which is why I hadn't seen it.

 

I did then watch it and thought it was hysterical and everyone was jumping up and down "Oh, you're going to do Glee that's amazing." Jane was so much fun and so lovely. We had a wonderful time. It was just great. 

 

Adam Rothenberg (Me): I loved your two-episode arc. I love the new version of "Physical" so much I put it on my gym mix. 

 

Olivia Newton-John: Oh good. Thank you.

 

More Olivia Newton-John Interviews:

2009 (Read Here): The Woman Behind The Music
2019 (Read Here): Don't Stop Believin' - print version
2019 (Listen Here): Don't Stop Believin' - audio version

Olivia Newton-John

 

More on Olivia Newton-John:

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England in 1948, moving to Melbourne, Australia when she was five. By 1963, Olivia was appearing on local Australian TV and weekly music programs. She cut her first single in 1966, a cover of Jackie DeShannon's "Till You Say You'll Be Mine" and in 1971 she recorded a cover of "Bob Dylan's "If Not For You," co-produced by John Farrar, with whom she continues to collaborate with today. In 1973, Olivia released her first U.S. album, "Let Me Be There," which earned her her first top ten single of the same name. That year, the Academy of Country Music honored her as "Most Promising Female Vocalist" and a Grammy Award as "Best Country Vocalist." In addition to the multiple awards listed above, Olivia has had five #1 hits (including the smash hit "Physical," which topped the charts for ten consecutive weeks), 15 top 10 singles, and has been inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame.

 

Other music career highlights include: the 1994 release of Gaia: One Woman's Journey, her most personal (and my favorite) album, which reflects upon her experiences with cancer, the 1999 release of her album Back With A Heart earned her a Daytime Emmy Award for her song "Love Is A Gift" which was featured on As The World Turns, performing "Dare to Dream" at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the release of Magic-The Very Best of Olivia Newton-John, which celebrated 30 years of recordings as well her first holiday album in 2002, The Christmas Collection. She has also released a duets album titled 2, which features many of her Australian friends as well as Indigo: Women of Song, a tribute album to many of Olivia's favorite female performers.

 

In addition to music, Olivia has delighted fans in such movies as the mega-hit movie musical Grease, the cult-favorite Xanadu (in which she danced her away across the screen with Gene Kelly), Two of A Kind, It's My Party and Sordid Lives. On television she has light up the screen as host of the internationally syndicated Wild Life television show, in the Showtime movie The Wilde Girls (co-starring with her real-life daughter Chloe), as a guest judge on American Idol, a series regular on Del Shores' Sordid Lives: The Series (co-starring Rue McClanahan, Leslie Jordan, and Jason Dottley), as well as the television movies A Mom For Christmas and My Christmas Romance.

 

Olivia Newton-John

 

In addition to her artistry, Olivia dedicates much of her time to many humanitarian & environmental causes such as "The Colette Chuda Environment Fund/CHEC (Children's Health Environ-mental Coalition) which was founded in 1991 after the tragic death of Chloe's best friend from a rare childhood cancer. She is creating the "Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre" (ONJCWC) in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia which hopes to break ground in 2010 as they are still in the fundraising stages (but almost there). The Wellness Centre is the major passion of the centre for Olivia. It will provide a comprehensive range of services and facilities for cancer treatment, education, training and research. Olivia has also released "Liv Aid," a breast self-examination device which helps women perform self-breast exams with more ease and confidence.

 

Everyone needs to get away and rejuvenate, so Olivia opened the GAIA Retreat & Spa, in Bryon Bay, Australia, a retreat site that bases your stay upon your individual needs. Her outreach and dedication to these causes, always brings Olivia back to music. In 2005 she released the CD "Stronger Than Before," featuring songs of inspiration, courage, and hope that relate to the many emotions cancer patients and their loved ones face, with a portion of the proceeds going to cancer research.

 

In 2006, Olivia released Grace and Gratitude, a relaxation CD to help promote spiritual balance and physical and emotional healing. Its release coincided with the launch of Olivia's signature line of body, heart, and spirit wellness products for women, exclusively available at Walgreens stores.