Singer-songwriter Darren Hayes is writing a memoir slated for 2024 release

Penguin Books has announced that a memoir is on its way from singer-songwriter Darren Hayes.

The book, which is scheduled for release in late 2024, looks set to reveal a lot of Hayes’ story about being in one of the world’s biggest bands (Savage Garden even beat Elton John as most played artist on US radio for a time) while battling strict expectations from his record company (ie: not being allowed to reveal he was gay at the peak of his popularity).

Said Hayes in a recent media statement, “I’ve been secretly telling stories about my life, through my music, since the very first Savage Garden single. Back then my innermost thoughts were shrouded in lyrical metaphor and deeply embedded within the visuals and stage costumes of a fantastical pop career.

“The reality of my life was much more complicated than the constraints of a 3-minute radio song would allow.”

↑ A segment on Cream radio from 2014 that cheekily (but delicately) laced samples through Darren Hayes’ ‘A Fear Of Falling Under | Who Would Have Thought’.

News of Hayes’ memoir arrives eight months on from the release of his fifth solo album, the candidly titled Homosexual.

In regards to his coming out, Hayes says he feels freer now that he is being his genuine self.

“Almost 30 years later I feel free for the first time in my life and so grateful to partner with Penguin to tell my authentic story.

“My experience of being a pop star in the ’90s was, ‘You’re fine as long as you’re not gay.’ You had all these boybands and teen heartthrobs but god forbid if you’re gay,” says Hayes. “It was incredibly suffocating, and for me – as someone who was literally buried by a major label the minute I came out – it was stifling.”

Darren Hayes on the cover of Cream magazine (Summer of 1999/2000).

If the penmanship to his memoir is as clever as his songwriting, we should be in for a colorful, sometimes camp, and altogether fascinating read about a man who boldly took it upon himself to help break down stigmas to being gay. I mean, c’mon, who outrightly calls their album Homosexuality while all the others keep beating about the bush?

Kudos.

Antonino Tati

www.thepopshop.shop