While pretty much every Australian knows the lyrics to Your The Voice b John Farnham, many might not know about his nearly 53-year-long love story with his wife Jill.
But Farnsie isn’t the only rockstar that’s found enduring love, as some of our biggest and boldest artists have been happily married for decades. Here’s some of the greatest Aussie rock’n’roll love stories.
JOHN & JILL FARNHAM
John Farnham was already a popstar heartthrob when he met the love of his life, Jill Blackman, in 1971, when they were both starring in a musical in Melbourne.
That personal connection to the musical world explains why John was so thrilled to see a chapter of his life story play out on the theatre stage at the end of last year when Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical showed at Sydney Theatre Company.
“Musicals have always held a very special place in my heart as it’s where I met Jill,” the singer, 76, says.
The musical coincided with the 40th anniversary of John’s hit album Whispering Jack, shining the spotlight on the five years leading up to the 1986 release, which delivered classic tracks such as You’re The Voice and Pressure Down.
By that point, he already had his supportive wife Jill firmly by his side, having met the dancer when they were both in the musical Charlie Girl.
“Jillie came out of the theatre and I saw her,” he told 60 Minutes. “At that stage, she had very long dark hair, down to her very petite bum, and I was history.”
But he had to work hard to get the girl! “It took me about three months to get a kiss,” he said.
It wasn’t long before the couple got engaged, and they exchanged vows in Glenroy on April 11, 1973.
Six years later, they had their first child, son Robert, followed by James a year on. Last June, John and Jill became grandparents, with James and partner Tessa welcoming baby boy Jett.
THE KEY TO LONGEVITY
Asked what the secret was to their long and happy marriage in 2002, John said the couple had one golden rule.
“We get on really, really well. Jillie and I have been together for always… it’s like anything though, it’s not all magic,” he said.
“Part of it is that we actually work at our relationship. We’ll argue like every other married couple… but we make a point of going to sleep in each other’s arms at night when we’re home together, whether we’ve had an argument or not.
“We might still have a problem in the morning, but generally that’s over just after we wake up because I was probably wrong anyway. And I pretty much do what I’m told!”
SICKNESS & HEALTH
It’s this enduring love that has seen John through the toughest time of his life, as he’s battled cancer for the past few years.
While he’s thankfully come out the other side, the ordeal to remove the malignant tumour in his mouth in 2022 resulted in parts of his mouth and jaw being removed.
“My facial disfigurement from the surgery means I can’t open my mouth wide enough for a strip of spaghetti, let alone to sing,” John wrote in his 2024 memoir, The Voice Inside.
Still, he seemed in good spirits as he celebrated Jill’s 70th birthday last March.
“He’s doing great,” James says. “He’s… kicking goals and annoying Mum as normal.
COLD CHISEL’S JIMMY & JANE BARNES
It was love at first sight for Jimmy Barnes, who first locked eyes with Jane Mahoney on November 22 in 1979. It was a hot, dry night in Canberra when Jane, then 21, was sitting on the floor at the Australian National University when a group of musicians walked in.
Jane had no idea who Jimmy was. “I’d probably been living under a bit of a rock,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly in 2021. But Jimmy, then 23, was mesmerised by her and hung around at the party until Jane finally called him a taxi, promising that if he went home, she would meet him at the airport the next day and give him her phone number. The rest is history!
The couple have four kids, Mahalia, Eliza-Jane, Jackie and Elly-May, have been together for 46 years and married for 44.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, though. In the early 2000s they were in the thick of their addiction to booze and drugs when their kids staged an intervention. “And that’s when we decided to go to rehab. It really worked. And I think that’s a sign of what makes a good family. It’s not one that’s perfect, but it’s one that has been there when we’ve needed each other’s support – and all of us have at different times,” says Jane.
And she’s been there to support Jimmy as he’s navigated the aftermath of his childhood of trauma and abuse. “He is the love of my life,” Jane says, while Jimmy adds, “Jane always sees things clearer than I do, and the world always seems a better place to her than it does to me.”
AC/DC’S ANGUS & ELLEN YOUNG
Music brought Angus and Ellen Young together – and it’s been the secret ingredient in their life ever since. In 1980, a young Dutch college student named Ellen scored a spot on the guest list for an AC/DC gig at a bar where her friend Adrian Vandenberg was playing as the support act.
Ellen and Angus, now 70, immediately hit it off, were married within a year, and 45 years later they’re still in love.
While Angus is known for his bad boy persona, the Scottish-born Aussie, who now lives in Aalten, a small Dutch town not far from the German border, was never the boss at home!
“Basically, for the two hours I climb on stage I become the schoolboy but as soon as I climb off, I don’t even get in the front door if I come home like that with the horns hanging out of my head,” he told Noise11 in 1992.
MIDNIGHT OIL’S PETER & DORIS GARRETT
Peter Garrett calls wife Doris his “absolute rock” and credits her for keeping him going through the ups and downs of life. Fiercely private about their three-decade love story, which started when they met at a Tunisian hotel, rocker and political activist Peter, 73, surprised everyone when he wrote a solo album A Version Of Now with love songs in 2016, many of which were about his devoted wife Doris.
“I can’t explain the synchronicity, but my heart’s still beating faithfully, amongst the billions there’s just you and me tonight,” he sings in Only One of his German-born wife, who he married in the mid-80s in Sydney’s Manly.
Speaking of writing the songs, the Midnight Oil frontman said he’s still “just pinching myself… thinking about when I met my wife and fell in love and we held it together through all this time and all the things that have happened”.
The Garretts share three children, Emily, May and Grace, who have sung backing vocals on his tracks and love impromptu singalongs at home. If he’s not around his friends and family, Peter knows he’s off-kilter.
As he says, “So when you put your hands back on the driving wheel, you want to get your mate next to you and drive off into the sunset together. It’s romantic but it’s also the stuff of life.”
NICK & SUSIE CAVE
Susie Bick was standing beneath the T-rex skeleton at London’s Natural History Museum when she first crossed paths with Nick Cave. The connection was immediate.
“In one great big crash bang… I was lost to her and that was that,” the singer later said. “When she came walking in, [I saw] all the things I’d obsessed over for all the years,” he added in the 2014 film 20,000 Days On Earth.
Susie was a celebrated British model and Vivienne Westwood muse, best known for the iconic Susie Smoking photograph shot by Nick Knight in 1988. By the time she met Nick in 1997, her career was winding down. Nick, meanwhile, was emerging from a turbulent period marked by drug use and personal upheaval. He was already a father to two sons, Luke and Jethro, from different relationships.
The couple married in 1999 and a year later welcomed twins Arthur and Earl, settling in Brighton, UK. Susie launched cult fashion label The Vampire’s Wife, and Nick entered a prolific creative period, connecting with fans through his online project The Red Hand Files.
In 2015, Arthur died in a devastating accident, and in 2022 Nick’s eldest son Jethro passed away. He says weathering the tragedies brought “incredible meaning” to their lives.
