Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Guy Sebastian joined us to talk music, mishaps, and more!

Episode Date: July 31, 2025

We sit down with Guy Sebastian to talk about everything from tsunami alarms going off mid-show to cringey old lyrics and the awkward moment he got caught in an uncomfortable photo dilemma between Megan and her husband.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The John O'Bannon Megan podcast thanks to HelloFresh, your home advantage for delicious midweek dinners everyone will love. We are rolling, Guy Sebastian, welcome. Thank you, thanks for having me. Oh it's great to have you in, and Megan's watched you the other night perform a showcase here in New Zealand, but keep getting interrupted by alerts from the government. That's true, yeah. Civil defence alerts.

Was it that rude? Guy's trying to sing? It doesn't matter if... Yeah that's the line. Is it triggering? Oh wow, that is quite triggering. You need to sing. It doesn't matter if... Yeah that's the one. Is it triggering? Oh wow that is quite triggering. You need to put that in your next album. But you guys had that sound during COVID.

Yeah it's a little bit triggering. Someone was saying it was actually a bit triggering because that was like the lockdown. There used to be another one you used to have like... Something like that. And there would be the radio ads like stay at home. This is a COVID-19 announcement. Yeah it was going off but I don't I think even if your phone's on silent that thing goes off. You don't have that at Ozzy?

Um you know when I the only times I've sort of heard that is when there's like a the missing child. Oh the Amber Alerts. Yeah and in the US like whenever I'm in LA like your phone lights up with the air. Oh they love an emergency alert over in America. Yeah, they're always on a high alert. But we've got you guys breaking up the tsunamis that would hit the Australian coast. No worries, we appreciate it. Always got our back. Save the better country, we'll just skip New Zealand.

Whatever happened to that place? Always got our back. Save the Meta country, we'll just skip New Zealand. It's just, yeah. That's right. Whatever happened to that place? I don't know. But so your first album in four years, is that right? Yeah, yeah. That's just about to release August 8th. About to release, yeah. It took four and a half years or something to write.

I used to pump them out. After winning Idol back in the day, I thought that was what you're supposed to do. Like if it's more than a year or whatever, like you're being unkind to your fans and you're going to disappear into like obscurity. And so now that I'm a bit older, I just, I'll release it when I feel like it's a good reflection of where I'm at. And then I've poured everything I can possibly pour into it. And I don't know, I've got to this point where I'm struggling to know what the good balance

of like, okay, that's enough now, just get it out there or like, no, scrutinise it more. I suppose it's never finished until you actually chuck it out there. You're like, well, there's nothing else I can add to it now. Exactly. And I think you've got to realize as well, like every piece of art, every album is just a snapshot in time of your life. Because I look back and I cringe at some of the things I wrote back in the day, like some of the lyrics, some of the rhymes.

Like in one of my songs I rhymed KFC with GFC. Oh yeah. What, the global financial crisis. I mean it was quite impactful but not necessarily a historical moment that people, you know. Now I was like, what's he talking about? I can't afford KFC because of the GFC. Oh my god I love it. It was just one of those things that back in the day I'd be in a songwriting session

and I hated getting stuck. Like I hated, like I wanted vibe. I was all about vibe and like if I'm stuck on a rhyme I'm like, oh that'll do. It's all good like that. Don't let it get in the way of the room. It feels good. It'll do. KFC, you know, you're not going to think about the bills or the GFC.

It's so good. That'll do. Well, don't worry. If you want to make yourself feel better, go back and look at old Jono and Bean stuff too. Think about the bills or the GFC. It's so good about all this. Well, don't worry. If you want to make yourself feel better, go back and look at old Jono and Ben stuff too. Oh yeah, God. That's the best part of the journey, right? Like you look back and you cringe a bit, but you know it was like, that's who you were back then.

That was your mentality. And now I stew over lyrics. And I feel like this is definitely my best writing I've ever done on an album and definitely the best ballads I reckon I've ever released. I love ballads. I can vouch because I was lucky enough to hear some songs from your new album and god ballads. Because you hear Guy on the radio and we know that he's a good singer. It's different when you're in a room there was like, I don't know, 50 people and poor. The goosebumps, like you're incredible.

Yeah, it was really fun. And even just doing something that intimate, we were in a studio, like recording studio and yeah, just a bit of a showcase. And the thing I love also about, like getting back here to New Zealand, it's been way too long. And you know, every album And, and, and, you

know, every, every album cycle, I'm like, why, why am I, I need to do NZ and I need a tour. And this time I just like, I just cleared the diary. I was like, I'm, I'm, I sort of quit the voice, quit everything that I was doing on TV, just so I could finish the album and just get back into touring and traveling. And, and I, you know, I rang the label, I was like, I have to get over there. They've been amazing. To be honest, it's the least you can do. We're out here taking tsunamis for you. Exactly. Unless you can come and visit us.

I think we talked to you during COVID times on Zoom and you had a home bar set up that you showed us around too over Zoom. I was like, if you've got that at home, you're probably not getting away that much. I've got the studio and the bar and my coffee machine. What would I leave? And your wife and children. All I need is a golf simulator and I'm good if there's like some kind of emergency or Armageddon.

How do you factor? Because, you know, this is job takes your way. Do you obviously have to factor in family, afterschool, sports and things? Yeah. Well, I guess it's sort of a, kind of a good time to start traveling a little bit again, because my kids are 13 and 11 and, um, yeah, like I've got a teenager now, which is crazy. And he immediately became a teenager. Like literally it's like his 13th birthday.

He just started giving me one word answers. Like, hey, howdy, how was school, dude? Yeah, pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, good. Is that it? You're going to give me a hug? What do you, what you just walked past me now and you don't cuddle me like it's so weird. Seems like a boy thing. Yeah. Cause I I've got teenage girls but the opposite is just like oh so basically anyway basically and I'm like Jesus so the story's continuing 10 minutes later. My 11 year old's still like that like I facetimed him last night and he's um my 11 year old sings like he's like he's amazing he's a weapon singer like. I'm not one of those parents that are just saying my kid's good. He's actually bloody really good.

Yeah. But yeah, he's like, he had a rehearsal for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He's got this musical at school and he talked to me for 45 minutes. And then I saw Hudson in the background and I was like, hey, howdy, hey. Oh, it's like I'm fighting for his attention. Like a desk. You go for a hug, it's like I'm fighting for his attention. Like a death, 13 man. You're going for a hug,

it's like awkward, pants on the back now. Yeah, I know. I say that, but, howdy is a bit obsessed with me. He loves his dad, he does. He loves his dad. And I'll take him fishing a lot. He's like, it's weird because I think one of the biggest

things that I've learned as a dad is, you know, like Hudson, he's very much me. He's like a mini me. He's even got a little afro and he's like extremely good looking, you know, he's very much like me. Just like you. I'm joking. Isn't that so dry? I was like, oh yeah, yeah. I'm obviously joking. I looked at your face and realized I did it too dry. He's a good looking guy.

You were like, that was weird when he said he was really good looking. He rates himself up. He loves his fishing, loves his AFL, loves his cricket, like all the things that I'm into. And then Archie, like it was only recently he's been singing his bum off. But before that, you know, he was very, like, very not into those things, hates fishing. Like, so I had to sort of force myself as a dad

to like things that Archie likes. And, and, cause I felt I could feel myself not connecting with him as much. And I just didn't, I didn't, never wanted him to feel like I'm spending, you know, taking honey fishing and blah, blah, blah. So it's been like I'm taking Huddy fishing and blah blah blah. So it's been really cool now that Archie sings. He's in the studio with me, we're writing songs together and then I'm out fishing with Huddy.

Oh, very cool. Mate, we need to be pretty transparent here. Megan, we need some redemption. This is something that took place the other night. Yeah, so I was there with my husband. Yes. He's a big fan of yours. And so he said, can we get a photo?

And Guy's very obliging. He's like, of course. So I go to get into the photo with you guys. And my husband's like, oh. He's pushed you out. Yeah, he pushed me out. Thank you. You remember this.

I do remember, yeah. He's like actually just me and Guy. So you had to take the photo, many photos. I had. He's like actually just me and Guy. So you had to take the photo, many photos. I had to take the photo of my husband and Guy. I was like, can I maybe jump in? So what we thought is she can get redemption and she can get a better photo than what Andrew got with you.

And we have a green screen and we thought we could go, like have you two running from dinosaurs. Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower, right? Just one Eurovision, you know, we can put all these things behind you. Are you on board? Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Land on the Moon. We'll put David Letterman's show in the back. You've been there for all of my pinnacle moments.

Oprah. I was there when you won Idol. That's the one, that's the one, with the confetti coming down. The whole time you were there as well, big. So we thought we might do this photo shoot. Yes, I like this. With the help of AI we are going to create some amazing scenes. Guys, Sebastian, always great to catch up with you. Congratulations on having new music back in the world. It's very exciting. It's so good to be back. Thank you. Appreciate it.