Shannon Noll has taken a long hard look at the crop of reality TV talent shows currently flooding Aussie TV screens and he’s not happy, Jan.
Nollsie may owe his illustrious music career and status as a bonafide Aussie treasure to Australian Idol – the iconic debut season of which shot him to national fame (despite of course being clearly rigged and robbing him of his rightful crown) but things have changed since back in his day.
Flash-forward to 2016 and Nollsie reckons televised singing contests like The Voice and X-Factor just take more than they give, flogging their big-name celebrity judges whilst essentially crapping on the dreams of young contestants.
“In our year it was all about the contestants. The judges were unknown,” the soul patch warrior told AAP (via News Corp), referring of course to the OG Aus Idol judging squadron of Mark Holden, Marcia Hines and Ian “Dicko” Dickson, all of whom had been pretty irrelevant until after the show got big.
“Now they bring Americans out who announce a new single and a tour. I think I heard one of them go ‘You can win this for me’ and I’m going, ‘Who is this supposed to be for?’ It’s supposed to be for the kids, not for the judges.”
And the Condobolin sheep-wrangler reckons it’s frustrating to watch kids being told they’re superstars when they’re only just starting out.
“These kids believe every word that they’re getting told and I worry about them because it’s a bit dangerous for them,” he said.
“I’ve sort of been through the highs and the lows of it and it’s hard until you get there to be able to handle the part where people don’t give a shit about you anymore all of a sudden.”
But luckily for Nollsie, fans currently give more of a shit about him than ever.
Guy Sebastian’s arch nemesis has just released a smasher new song all about utes and you can catch him on the road supporting John “Farnsy” Farnham in January for the absolutely GTFO epic all-Aussie Red Hot Summer Tour.
Watch: Shannon Noll – ‘Who I Am’
