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Colin Hay Interview: Man At Work

Colin Hay talks exclusively with New Idea, on sale now! Photo: New Idea

No free vodka, no fruit basket, no caviar. Alone in his hotel suite, former Men At Work frontman Colin Hay suddenly realised how times had changed.

'Back in the day they used to give us all this stuff on the house,' chuckles Colin, now a solo singer-songwriter. 'They still booked me into the presidential suite but now there was nothing in it, which made me laugh.'

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Reflecting on fame and fortune, the Down Under star was moved to pen an open letter to Justin Bieber, who had recently been arrested for drink-driving.

'I had monumental commercial success with my old band Men At Work, and... some parallels can be drawn,' Colin wrote on Facebook. 'We were kings for a couple of years. It was explosive. When the dust settled, I was alone. I looked around and everyone had left the party...

'The person holding your Diet Coke and slice of pizza is not necessarily your friend. When your entourage shrinks, through design or circumstance, be glad and just breathe.'


It's a long way to the top when you want to rock 'n' roll. After that, the descent can be steep, as this Grammy Award winner knows.

'It's terribly, terribly sad,' the 61-year-old says, having fought and won his own long-running battle with the bottle. 'I think Justin will be OK, but things can go wrong for all kinds of people.'

To read the rest of Colin Hay's interview, pick up this week's New Idea magazine, on sale now!

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