Uptight Australians React Uptightly

While being interviewed on Australian radio two days ago, Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns finished off an otherwise true story with an off-the-cuff and obvious falsehood: “It was me and Natalie and Peter Garrett and Bono laying on Bono’s bed smoking joints, listening to Young Modern demos.” Well, obvious to most people anyway…

Hours later – after being contacted by Mr. Garrett’s office – Johns issued a lengthy statement describing that claim as a “stupid” and saying “I really should just shut up and stick to singing.”

Remember, if you will, that Garrett, the former lead singer of Midnight Oil, is now an elected member of Australia’s parliament. And so the fun begins…

A spokeswoman for Mr. Garrett yesterday said: “We confirm Daniel Johns’ statement saying that it was a joke.”

Kate Pasterfield later quoted her boss Mr. Garrett as saying: “I tried a bit of dope in my 20s but I haven’t since.”

Mr. Garrett has been reluctant to discuss whether he has any experience with drugs, refusing to address the issue in a 2004 interview.

“That’s a part of my life which is closed,” he told 3AW.

I think, even in the United States, that would’ve been that. Oh, but no…

Anti-drugs campaigner Tony Wood, whose daughter Anna died of an ecstasy overdose in 1995, said Mr. Garrett could prove his innocence by being tested for marijuana.

Surely Mr. Wood had more to say on the matter, right? He did…

“These people are our leading figures,” he said. “If they’re going into Parliament and they’re stoned, how can they be making decisions on our behalf?

“It’s about time we got out and started getting tough on them.”

Tough on whom, Mr. Wood? The unwitting participants in other people’s jokes?

Garrett Should Take Dope Test [The Courier-Mail] Silverchair [Myspace]