In what Hugh Jackman describes as a personal bucket list tick for him, the superstar actor and performer, on both stage and screen, brings us classic BBC archive interviews with a legendary figure, whom Hugh has not only loved since his childhood in Australia, but also studied and met, as preparation for his new film role in Song Sung Blue.
The movie is a true story about a Neil Diamond interpreter, who overcomes many hurdles pursuing the American dream. Hugh has a true insider’s insight into Neil, having sung karaoke with him and his family around the dinner table and talked to him about many of his classic songs.
In BBC Radio interviews with Steve Wright and Tim Smith, Paul Gambaccini, Nicky Campbell, Gloria Hunniford, Johnnie Walker & Matt Everitt, Neil Diamond talks about his classic songs including I Am I Said, Sweet Caroline, Cracklin’ Rose, Solitary Man and many others.
With both wisdom and a sense of humour, Neil talks about early days in the Brill Building working alongside Neil Sedaka, Carole King & Burt Bacharach, duetting with Barbra Streisand after a radio DJ spliced their two, separately released, versions of You Don’t Bring Me Flowers together, acting alongside Laurence Olivier in The Jazz Singer, confiding in Frank Sinatra, living a normal life with his kids – going to school sports events and eating in McDonalds, getting his first number one album and changing direction with producer Rick Rubin, late in life, and having to prove his identity by singing in public.
In Neil Diamond At The BBC Hugh talks about visiting Neil and his family, singing karaoke at the dinner table, and discovering they have a rule for whenever anyone says ‘So Good’. Hugh Jackman said: “ I went to spend some time with Neil and his wife Katie, and also his son Jesse. I actually invited myself, very Australian thing to do. Never let an Australian come over. They will never leave. But I went over and we were having dinner. At that dinner, Neil pulled out a karaoke machine and we did karaoke together. I mean, that’s the sideline, that’s not the story. The story is, as I was talking, I said something, I was like, ah, this dinner’s so good. And I heard so good, so good. From two different people and I just sort of let it go. It was, I thought, okay, and then it happened again and I said, okay, what’s going on? And Katie Diamond said, there’s a diamond rule. The rule is if anyone says ‘so good’ in their house, two other people have to say ‘so good so good’. There you go. So now you know the diamond rule. Play that game at home folks, you’ll stop saying so good real fast.”
Hugh explains that he listens to Neil’s music because it powerfully expresses the loneliness of what it is to be a human. He said “I was lucky enough to spend some time with Neil. He rang me when he saw the movie and he was crying because he knew of this story really well, and he gave all the rights to his music for this because he just loved the story so much.”
“He just loved the movie because he loved obviously, his music, but more than that, he just loved the story of Mike and Claire Sardina, and he said to me, you know, man, I’m still just a kid from Brooklyn. Like, all this stuff happened to me and I can’t believe it, but I relate to all those tip jar musicians around the world, those thousands of musicians who do it and have to do it because they love it. Whether they become Oasis or Ed Sheeran is immaterial. They’re just. The measure of success is that you’re just getting up and doing it, and that’s the thing that he loved. Neil’s really a working-class guy at heart, and I asked him a lot about performing because I’m a performer and I hold him in probably the top five live performers of all time.”
“And he said nothing made him feel more alive than when he was with an audience. And that’s why his fans are so passionate, you know, they, they really are.”
Hugh added, when asked about presenting the At The BBC special: “I actually feel really honoured to be doing it and thrilled Neil’s music has endured and will endure for so long. But it seems to go through these waves and I think that, I hope that the movie finds another legion of fans, who kind of discover more than just Sweet Caroline. And doing this show and highlighting it, is one of the career highlights for me.”
- Listen to Neil Diamond At The BBC on BBC Sounds from Monday 15 December
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