Daniel Johns discusses Silverchair feud and terrifying car crash
Australian singer-songwriter Daniel Johns has opened up about the horrifying car accident he was involved in earlier this year and his subsequent term in rehab. Johns discussed the crash’s impact on his mental health problems and the pre-existing tensions between himself and his former Silverchair bandmates.
Back in March, just a few weeks before the release of his latest solo album, FutureNever, Johns revealed that he’d entered rehab after being charged with high-range drink-driving. The singer had been driving under the influence when he collided with a vehicle in the Hunter region of New South Wales. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was ordered to complete ten months of an intensive corrections sentence.
Earlier this week, Johns appeared on the Australian discussion program The Project, where he explained to host Carrie Bickmore that while working on FutureNever, he “pretty much had a full-on nervous breakdown”.
He said of the situation: “I got in a car, and I was barely even aware what I was trying to do. I just wanted to escape. It was the equivalent of just like running into the forests. Everything was too much. I was in a really quiet environment, a really peaceful environment, and I was trying to run away. I didn’t realise that all the noise was in my head, so there was nowhere to run, there was nowhere to hide”.
Johns continued to say that he “remember[s] every detail” of the crash, adding: “I remember being lost. I remember being petrified. I remember being in the dark. I remember the colours – I even remember thinking, ‘This is how I’m gonna die’. But I wasn’t suicidal…It was only when the penny dropped, that I was putting other people in danger, that I went, ‘What the fuck?’ Because I like chaos – that feels me as an artist. I like chaos, I love it, but I hate it when I can’t get out”.
Johns asserted that, thankfully, nobody was hurt in the collision and noted that he was “so grateful” because “if someone had been hurt, I think I probably would have killed myself”. The singer also mentioned that he “tried to reach out” and “make amends” with the other person involved in the crash.
During his subsequent rehab visit, Johns clarified that he “didn’t go to rehab for alcohol” but rather because he noticed his sanity deteriorating in the fog of his nervous breakdown.
He explained: “I was like, ‘I need help, my brain is crazy’. Like, I couldn’t tell what was real… I couldn’t even hear music correctly – and for me, music is the truth, so if I can’t hear music correctly if I can’t hear sound accurately, I lose my compass of what is real. I haven’t written a note of music since I got back, and I don’t know if that’s a nail in the coffin… I don’t know what that is, but I can’t even play music at the moment because I’m so scared that it will start again”.
Watch the full interview below, where Daniel Johns discusses the ongoing tensions between himself and his former Silverchair bandmates.
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