It was the photo that Australia waited decades to see – Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian and runner up Shannon Noll posing arm in arm, 20 years on from their very public showdown.
Some took it as proof their long-speculated ‘feud’ and rivalry had ended, but in a new podcast episode, both Sebastian, 42, and Noll, 48, have rubbished any notion of bad blood between them.
“It couldn’t be further from the truth,” Noll said of reports of a ‘feud’ on the latest episode of his podcast, Idol Talking With Nollsie, which featured Sebastian as a guest.
Watch the video above.
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“We’re mates, once you go through something like that you’re bonded,” he continued of their Australian Idol journeys.
The duo also opened up about how their famous photo, taken together in Sydney’s Maroubra in October, came to be.
”Some media outlets called it the photo that Australia needed, I thought that was so cool, man,” Noll said to Sebastian, who then made a joke about Noll’s recent fitness transformation.
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“Why couldn’t you do it when you’re a bit floppier?” Sebastian joked to Noll, before clarifying he meant “sloppier”.
“You were avoiding me until you were swole as hell,” he laughed, noting how the “whole country” was happy Noll shared the photo.
Elsewhere in the discussion, the pair addressed how they were pitted against each other by the media and fans during their time on the show, but they actually didn’t know that was the case until after it was over.
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“There wasn’t much real estate to think about anything else except how nuts our lives were going to be… it was just a lot, I felt like I was sort of a bit dizzy from it all,” Sebastian said.
Noll said neither he nor Sebastian were privy to what was happening outside the competition, as they were “locked away” and not allowed to see any discussions about themselves on online forums or in the wider media.
“I don’t know if I was ready for that world,” Sebastian said of the public discourse surrounding them during their time on the show.
“Imagine doing what we did then now with social media… it’s a different kettle of fish.”
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“For all the good things, a lot of bad stuff comes with it too,” Noll agreed.
“Especially in a situation where there’s so much pressure [“and judgement”, Sebastian interjected], one comment, especially back then, you were so fragile enough as it was, just any tiny little thing that could go wrong would just bring the whole house of cards down…
“Forget one word, there was a 10-second delay on the show, you forget a lyric, drop a mic, trip on stage, it was all over.”
Sebastian – who had Noll join him on stage as a special guest during a recent show at the Sydney Opera House – then opened up about how he copes with “copping flack” in the media now, saying “it’s hard” and he doesn’t “reckon it gets easier”.
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“I try to tell myself it does, but I think you just panic… now that I’ve got kids, the stakes are a lot higher, and I know that anything that’s in the media, my sons are at the age where they can be bullied for stuff or read it,” Sebastian, who shares Hudson and Archie with wife Jules, said.
“I had to just come to terms with something that was probably the worst thing about me, going through Idol, which was I just thought I could please everyone… and you just can’t.
“And people are just going to hate you, and they’ll hate you for things that aren’t even true. And it’s up to you whether you want to spend your energy trying to defend something, and you can’t win.”