In 2022, Guy Sebastian spent several days in court testifying against his former manager, Titus Day.<\/p>\n
By night, he was performing on stage in front of a sea of fans.<\/p>\n
“I’m going from the witness box and I would get on stage, and I would see fans in front of me,” he tells ABC iview’s The Assembly.<\/p>\n
“And it was like the best and the worst in a day,” Sebastian says.<\/p>\n
Sebastian became an instant pop star after winning the inaugural season of Australian Idol in 2003, going on to release 10 studio albums and win seven ARIA Music Awards.<\/p>\n
Since then, he has represented Australia at Eurovision, placing fifth with his song Tonight Again in 2015, before going on to become a judge on X-Factor and The Voice.<\/p>\n
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Guy Sebastian competed in Eurovision in Vienna, Austria. (Reuters: Leonhard Foeger)<\/p>\n
He is also one of six, high-profile Australians interviewed by autistic journalism students on The Assembly.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Sebastian opens up about the impact of the court case.<\/p>\n
Day had been Sebastian’s manager for more than a decade when the pair split over a financial dispute in 2017.<\/p>\n
In 2022, a NSW District Court jury found Day guilty of misappropriating funds<\/a> after embezzling more than $600,000 from the singer, but the convictions were quashed on appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n A retrial was ordered, and in July, a jury acquitted Day of four charges<\/a> and remained hung on most of the allegations. The case was dismissed.<\/p>\n A civil trial between Sebastian and Day is expected to resume in the Federal Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n Sebastian says it was his song Before I Go that helped him navigate the tough time.<\/p>\n Sebastian sings: “Just one more thing before I go \/ Before the final curtains close \/ There’s no tellin’ what comes next \/ But these tired hands will show \/ You’ll know my name before I go.”<\/p>\n The 43-year-old said he was moved with every performance, standing on stage singing every word “like I meant it”.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s like a fight song, I guess, that I wrote during a really tough time that I go back to very often.<\/p>\n “I just needed a bit of a reminder that no-one has power over me to decide how big I can dream or where I can go in life.”<\/p>\n Since the court case, Malaysian-born Sebastian says he has been intentional about where he directs his energy, particularly on social media.<\/p>\n “I remember I responded to a troll on social media, and someone said something awful to me, and I sent them a message back,” Sebastian says.<\/p>\n “One of my fans wrote to me, and she said, ‘Guy, I’ve sent you over 100 messages saying I love you and I support you \u2026 I’ve never had a response, yet this troll who doesn’t follow you throws shade at you and gets your attention.'”<\/p>\n Guy Sebastian says he now cherishes his fans more than ever. (ABC)<\/p>\n He says the encounter left him in tears.<\/p>\n “I almost felt this deep shame of where I was directing my energy, and our energy is precious. We only have a certain … amount of it.<\/p>\n “I think it’s a daily reminder to wake up and think, ‘Am I going to devote my energy to the people who love me? Or am I going to waste it on people who aren’t in my corner?'”<\/p>\n Becoming the first Australian Idol<\/p>\n It’s been more than two decades since a 21-year-old Sebastian claimed the Australian Idol title, and a legion of loyal fans have stuck with him in the years since. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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