Former Savage Garden star Darren Hayes has taken a swipe at Australia’s music industry after he wasn’t invited to the 2024 ARIA Awards on Wednesday night.
The singer, 52, whose band has won 14 ARIA Awards, including ten for their debut album in 1997, shared a selfie to Instagram alongside a cheeky caption.
‘I’m so excited to be in Australia at the same time as the ARIA Awards!’ he captioned the image.
‘What day are they? Maybe I’ll get an invite,’ he continued, adding a laughing face emoji.
Truly Madly Deeply was one of Savage Garden’s biggest hits and the song won the 1997 ARIA Award for highest-selling single and single of the year.
The band also won Best Independent Release, Breakthrough Artist – Album, Album of the Year, Best Group and Highest Selling Album.
Former Savage Garden star Darren Hayes has taken a cheeky swipe after he wasn’t invited to the 2024 ARIA Awards on Wednesday night
Savage Garden, comprising Darren and guitarist Daniel Jones, formed in 1993 and produced a slew of No. 1 hits like To the Moon and Back and Truly Madly Deeply.
The band called it quits in 2001. Darren continued with a solo career while Daniel went on to marry former Hi-5 star Kathleen De Leon.
It is unlikely Savage Garden will ever reunite because the duo ‘don’t have a friendship anymore’.
Speaking with Sarah Grynberg on her A Life of Greatness podcast last week ahead of the release of his memoir Unloveable, Darren said he has suffered a ‘huge personal betrayal’ as a result of the split.
‘Our falling out was entirely due to the fact that he told the world that the band breakup was the first he’d ever heard of it which was not true,’ Darren said.
Speaking with Kyle and Jackie O in 2022, Darren pointed to a press conference Daniel had held in 2001 announcing that he was saddened by news Savage Garden was ending, while claiming Darren never consulted him before going public.
‘He held that press conference where he said, “Oh, this is the first I’ve heard of it”, which was such a stupid thing to say, because people thought I’d left the band,’ he said.
Darren revealed to Sarah that while his former bandmate may’ve since changed his story, it was a case of too little, too late.
The singer, whose band have won 14 ARIA Awards including 10 for their debut album in 1997, shared a selfie to Instagram and wrote: ‘Maybe I’ll get an invite’
‘He never corrected that. He eventually did, maybe a decade later but it was a decade too late and I really suffered,’ he said.
‘It was a huge personal betrayal for me and I speak about it in the book as politely as I possibly can because for the longest time, I just kept expecting him to, one day, just sit down and say the truth.’
Darren added that he initially gave Daniel a ‘pass’ over his version of events, but soon grew tired of being blamed for the breakup of the award-winning pop band when it was Daniel who wanted to leave.
‘There are lots of reasons why, in the very very beginning he didn’t, which I gave him a pass for at the time,’ he said.
‘But three or four years later when I was still blamed for the band breaking up, I realised I didn’t want to have to keep pretending being close to somebody who had not been very kind to me, is the truth.
‘We don’t have a relationship at all because of that.’
After forming in Brisbane in 1993, Savage Garden released two studio albums Savage Garden in 1997 and Affirmation in 1999. Pictured Daniel Jones and Darren
