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The Voice’s Guy Sebastian reveals why he really quit The X Factor
18 years after winning the very first season of Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian has successfully established himself as a staple in the Australian music scene with a continuous string of hit singles and albums.
While the 39-year-old’s appearance as a judge on two popular reality TV competitions has also helped cement his status as a household name, he now admits that one of these gigs was much more pleasant than the other.
Before he became a coach on The Voice, Guy had joined The X Factor Australia’s judging panel in 2010 when Channel Seven rebooted the series.
He had a two-year break after 2013 and returned for seasons 7 and 8 up until the show’s cancellation. However, Guy now reveals that there was more to his departure than the public was made aware of.
The Believer singer opened up to Yahoo Lifestyle about his time on the series, including the bad blood between himself and fellow mentor Iggy Azalea.
“I absolutely don't have a feud with Iggy Azalea,” he declares. “That was a weird time.”
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The two judges had obvious tension when they appeared on the show together, but it wasn’t until recently that their discord grew into an all-out social media war.
After Guy confessed on the Kyle and Jackie O Show in 2019 that he “never liked Iggy” because she was “awful” to him, the Fancy hitmaker was quick to clap back in a series of now-deleted tweets.
“Best of luck to you and your fedoras!” she wrote online for her seven million followers. “Everyone please watch Guy Sebastian, he’s on The Voice Australia and he really, really desperately needs the ratings to feed his children. Xoxo”
Now, Guy has opened up about his decision to leave the show and join The Voice shortly after.
“I quit The X Factor because I wasn't being who I am,” he discloses. “I was like, why am I doing this? I don't want to have arguments with people, I’m not an argument person, I don't fight.
“You end up in this role where you're going, I don't need to do this. So I just went back to touring and went back to writing for a few years, and then The Voice called.
“I actually had said to my manager that probably the only thing I would do is The Voice because of how positive it was, nobody rips into each other.”
Guy is currently enjoying his third season on the singing competition alongside newcomers to the Aussie franchise Jessica Mauboy and Rita Ora, as well as season one coach Keith Urban.
He details that this year has been “the most fun” he’s had on the show thanks to the panel of superstars and their lack of conflict.
“We just genuinely really like each other and really respect each other and just couldn't wait to hang out. It was really nice, there was never one argument,” he says.
“Could you imagine right now if we released a show where there are four egotistical people, myself included, having ego trips and just canning each other? It would just be so tone-deaf for what everyone's going through right now.
“It's not what people need, it's not what the industry needs. We didn't want to make it about us, we wanted to make it about the artists.”
While Guy acknowledges that this season of The Voice has been a huge success with the current coaches, he confesses that the absence of the show’s long-time coach Delta Goodrem has been noted.
“I miss Delta,” he says. “She's a friend and I've worked alongside her for so many years and she felt it was time for her to move on.
“But I think it's been really nice to see Jess [Mauboy] in that seat and for her to fill it so well. No one can replace Delta, but Jess is just herself and she’s just doing her without trying to fill any shoes or anything like that.
“It’s pretty hard when you’re filling a seat where literally Delta has been there from the start and she owned that seat and did it so well, so I think Jess is doing a really great job, but of course everyone misses the original cast member of The Voice.”
Guy recently released his song Believer as the seventh single from his massive 2020 album T.R.U.T.H., which he is set to perform on The Voice in the coming weeks.
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