I'm Just A Country Girl
By Jim Scheetz
Wide-eyed and hopeful, Olivia Newton-John is still like an excited child searching for the presents under the Christmas tree
She reminds you a lot of a child on Christmas morning wide-eyed in hopeful anticipation, with a quiet sort of happiness holding back wild excitement. Any minute you expect her to burst out with childish glee, as if she had seen a giant Christmas tree loaded with gifts.
Olivia Newton-John is an exciting woman, full of love and warmth, always smiling. Even in a serious moment, you feel the sober mouth will suddenly break into a warm smile.
Olivia is fun, and fun loving, but in a simple, reserved way. Give her the blue skies, wide open spaces, a horse to ride, a couple of close friends for company, barking dogs, and a trail between the beach and a cabin with a warm fireplace.
People too rarely get to see this side of Olivia Newton-John. Usually her skies are smoke-filled rooms with glaring klug lights, barking Las Vegas audiences, and a trail between stage and cold dressing room. It all started in Australia.
“My father is Welsh and my mother German,” she says. “I was born in England, (Sept 26, 1948) but when I was five we moved to Australia where my father was made Master of Ormond College in Melbourne. I guess music is just in the Welsh blood because it has always been a part of me, even through childhood.”
Olivia’s grandfather on her mother’s side was a Nobel-prize winning physicist and her brother is now a physician in Australia. Her father agonised for years before choosing a life as a German professor, rather than as an opera singer.
When Olivia was in high school in Australia she began singing at her brother-in-law’s coffee lounge “just for something to do. It was the only place that I was allowed to sing that my mother approved of.”
She then joined three friends to form a singing group called The Sol Four. But when the act began to interfere with schoolwork the group disbanded.
She travelled to England at the age of 16 and formed a “doublet” with another Australian girl and close friend, Pat Carroll. Together they appeared on BBC television and in cabarets for two years. When Pat’s visa ran out she was forced to return to Australia.
Olivia continued to be successful in England, but her real success came when she went to the United States in 1973, and she won her first Grammy Award as Best Country Vocalist with the song “Let Me Be There.” In 1974 she won more music awards than any other female vocalist.
“I virtually got all my experience and confidence on stage in America,” says Olivia, who seems to take all her success in casual stride. “I felt safer here because nobody knew me. I had no one to answer to. It’s funny, if you get up on stage in front of people who know you and have watched you, it’s very inhibiting. But if you get up in front of people who don’t know you. it’s much easier.”
Olivia’s music is impossible to categorise, except for the many songs which have a definite country influence. The others, and clearly her most popular, are totally unique to Olivia, with her own soft, ethereal voice and winsome, laid-back quality. I hope my music is a cross-section of various kinds of music without going to extremes with any of them,” she says.
Whatever the sound, it is a refreshing break from the acid rock sounds of the immediate past and seems to be a trend with such soloists as John Denver, Helen Reddy, Mac Davis, Neil Sedaka, and again Glen Campbell, as well as many others. Lyrics are back, as well as the catchy rhythms.
Olivia feels none of her ultimate success would have happened if she had stayed in Australia.
“In Australia, you can become quite successful and earn a lot of money, but if you have any incentive at all, you try to get out in the beginning. If I hadn’t left I would still be there doing the same things. In Australia you can only do so many television shows and so many live things. The record markets are limited and that is where I was strongest.”
Except for the hours of travelling. Olivia really enjoys being on the road, doing a concert for a different audience every night, meeting different people, but she has one secret desire.
“I’d like to dye my hair,” she confides mischievously, and sneak off for two weeks and sing with a small band, perhaps a jazz or rock band in a small club. Just sort of fool around and have a lot of fun entertaining a small audience.”
While she really enjoys singing and entertaining. Olivia also misses the down-to-earth friendships that are so difficult for popular entertainers to find.
“I tend to like everybody until I have a reason not to. I don’t have much of a chance to meet everyday people and I really like everyday people. I’ve just finished a fantastic week in Aspen, Colorado, doing the John Denver Christmas Special, which is one of the nicest weeks I’ve had in a long long time. We met a couple who work a ranch. They weren’t involved in anything but their ranch and their animals and that’s the sort of life I’d like to have.”
Olivia finally has the sort of ranch home she has always wanted. She recently bought it in Malibu, about a mile from the beach where she now lives, up the coast from Los Angeles. While in Colorado she bought a horse which she hopes to ride frequently to the beach and along the mountain trails, her great dane and setter barking close behind.
“I really like to be involved with environmental things, and animal protection and welfare, because those are things that affect me most. And preserving and looking after what we have. There are so many animals that are neglected and without homes.”
Discussing country living, the environment and animals, seems to be the presents under the tree for Olivia. She really comes alive, sparkling with enthusiasm and slipping into the beautiful Australian accent so becoming to her. These moments seem to reveal the real Olivia Newton-John, confident and comfortable in her well-fitting denim outfits. And rather than a microphone, she would just as soon have a pool stick in her hand, a hobby she is quite expert at.
The future definitely holds more of the success that Olivia has enjoyed in the past with her popularity as a singer, but may also include dramatic acting roles on television and the movies. She has already been contacted by several studios in Hollywood, all of which she has turned down. She has consented, however, to a screen test and indicates she will try acting, “if the right role comes along.”
She has also signed a contract to do a television special for which the final arrangements, including screening dates, have not yet been decided.
Meanwhile, she has applied for US citizenship and plans to live in the Los Angeles area, even though living in California is “very bad for your health,” according to Olivia. “The girls get very old, very quickly. You must be very careful how you treat your skin. And except for photo sessions and appearances, I never wear make-up.”
Nor does Olivia go in for dieting, planned exercise or yoga, meditating, or any of the other health fads which have invaded the United States in general and Southern California in particular. She does play tennis, swims, loves to ride horses, and of course shoots a mean game of pool every chance she gets.
After all, Olivia Newton-John is just a country girl at heart.