Kylie Minogue

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is Kylie, as in Minogue. She favours the word performer to describe herself, and that seems about right. The very personification of pop glamour. She's not just a pretty face and a pert behind, but a non-stop grafter too. Her thirty-odd-year career has been a bedazzling confection of T V shows, pop hits, dance spectaculars, and sell-out tours, liberally sprinkled with worldwide fan worship, three Brits and a Grammy.

Presenter1:01

Where lesser mortals have seen their early showbiz success fritter away on the fickle wind of fashion, she has stayed the course and even played her part in shaping pop culture, building an enduring brand in the process. The Victorian Albert Museum once devoted an entire exhibition to her image, costumes, and career. She started very young as a child actress, going on to be a teen sensation as tomboy mechanic Charlene in the soap opera Neighbours. Twenty million Brits watched her character get married. Most of them cried. So many fans have had their picture taken with her Madame Tussaud's waxwork that she's had to be replaced four times, a number bettered only by Her Majesty the Queen. She says,

Presenter1:42

I'll never stop being a show-off. When I'm in the retirement home, I'll still be getting out my old costumes and feathers and putting on a show. It's what I've been doing my entire life. Ever since I was a little girl, singing and dancing has been as natural to me as breathing. So welcome, Kylie. You were once captured on film just before you were going on stage and you were sort of muttering to yourself, saying, I feel like I'm just about to faint or my knees are going to buckle. Why do you put yourself through that?

Kylie Minogue2:09

Yeah. Thank you for that lovely introduction. You're welcome. I'm either a show off or I'm a complete shy kind of mouse. So why do I do it? I guess because I like it and it comes very naturally and I'm completely unqualified to do anything else.

Presenter2:23

I'm spinning around, can't get you out of my head, I should be so lucky and on and on and on. The list of hits goes, and not one of them has made it onto your list of eight to day. Where is music in your life? Not your music, but the music you listen to for pleasure?

Kylie Minogue2:35

Oh, it's everywhere. I wouldn't say my family or my parents were especially musical. I didn't kind of grow up in a house that was.

Kylie Minogue2:43

Full of music, and we all, you know, they didn't play instruments, it's not that kind of family. But, you know, as a kind of eight-year-old getting into Greece, that was a life-changing. A lot of Australian bands. And then as a teenager, I just became a pop fanatic and would hover, hover for who knows how long above my mono radio cassette player, which I still have. It's like it's a relic with complete with graffiti and all the stuff that I put on it when I was 13, 14, you know, hovering to record my favourite song.

Kylie Minogue3:16

I literally cannot imagine a world without music.

Presenter3:20

Tell us about your first track this morning, and Kylie, what are we going to hear?

Kylie Minogue3:23

It's ABBA Dancing Queen. ABBA became huge. I used to have my ABBA knee-high socks with a little circular picture of them on the side. I particularly remember parading around a table and doing some kind of imaginary performance in my head. So, I loved ABBA from early on, and then at the Olympics, the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, I performed Dancing Queen, which was just an epic moment for me. So, I have a couple of reasons to absolutely love this song.

Speaker 43:55

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine.

Speaker 44:24

Ooh, see that

Presenter4:32

That was Abba and Dancing Queen. I'm sorry we cut it off in its prime there, Kylie.

Presenter4:36

Depriving you of your much loved Abba. Um let's talk a bit about your family then. Your mother, Carol, um emigrated from Wales to Australia when she was just ten and ten years later she married young actually, at the age of twenty, she met your dad at Ron. He was an accountant.

Kylie Minogue4:43

When she was

Presenter4:50

What are your earliest memories from home?

Kylie Minogue4:53

Wow, we used to live out I wouldn't say in the Styx, but where a version of suburbia meets the sticks. It was very, very far out. Big news in our household when we got a heater. So very, very humble beginnings for my my family. And mum did very well. Three kids under four.

Presenter5:10

You took up piano and violin when you were a schoolgirl. Tell me about your Year Eight piano exam. How did you get on?

Kylie Minogue5:17

Oh, the eights and unders. That's a story my dad loves to tell to this day. I guess even then I wanted to do things my own way.

Kylie Minogue5:26

I hate rules. I hate being boxed in. I literally can't stand it. And that was part of me even as I was younger because I didn't want to do the grades. I didn't want to have to learn.

Kylie Minogue5:36

I liked playing and I'd learnt everything by ear. So when it came to going into this little piano Stairford I walked on to the stage, my dad says I was sat and I looked over to the judges and gave a really big smile.

Kylie Minogue5:51

Went back, played run, sheep, run, or whatever it was, finished. Big smile to the judges, and I don't recall anyone telling me to do that. I came second.

Kylie Minogue6:01

only to some piano child prodigy, and it kind of illustrates how I work today. I don't do all that background stuff. I'd rather have a kind of natural feeling for it and have space to breathe in. And if if I am forced to do something, I will do everything not to do it.

Presenter6:19

But you probably also have the confidence to know that if you throw people that thousand megawatt smile, you can get away with a lot.

Kylie Minogue6:26

It must have worked back then and I'm and it's still working now.

Presenter6:30

Time for some more music, Kylie. Tell me what we're gonna hear now.

Kylie Minogue6:32

Next, we have Stevie Wonder with Love's in Need of Love Today, which on its own is a beautiful song. But the reason I've chosen a Stevie Wonder song is that when my parents used to have dinner parties, Stevie Wonder's album, Songs in the Key of Life, which is a double album, was played all the time. And it just reminds me of being my brother, my sister, and I kind of wanting to see what was happening at the dinner. And then it was bedtime for us. And if mum got the coffee percolator out and the after-dinner mints came out, this is a very big special night at home.

Speaker 47:06

What I'm about to say

Speaker 47:11

Couldn't mean the world's disaster

Speaker 47:16

Could change your joy and laughter to tears and pain it's that love

Speaker 47:27

And these

Speaker 47:29

Love, love today.

Speaker 47:35

Dummy

Speaker 47:36

Delay, send yours in right away.

Presenter7:45

Love's in Need of Love Today by Stevie Wonder and memories for you, Kylie, of your parents' dinner parties. Um your sister Danny broke into show business uh a little before you did. Is it is it true you used to deal with her fan mail? You used to have to sort of do the do the sign photos for her when she was older.

Kylie Minogue7:59

Yeah.

Kylie Minogue8:01

Uh we would help, yeah, the whole family would get involved.

Presenter8:02

Yeah.

Presenter8:04

And did that fire your ambition? Did you think, Yeah, I want a bit of that?

Kylie Minogue8:07

I think it did a little, yeah, to see that it was possible. I mean, had Dan not been doing Young Talent Time, I don't think we would have had any connection to Showbiz at all.

Kylie Minogue8:19

I do remember having a fantasy that my neighbours there was a family with a a boy next door.

Kylie Minogue8:26

And I would imagine that his father was a record producer and would hear me singing. I mean I was eight or nine and I just thought all kids dreamt of being a pop star or or being a singer. My brother was interested in photography and filming and we would muck around and make little films. But I don't think any of us were good enough for any other family member to say, Get up and do a song for them.

Presenter8:49

And how was the academic site, passing exams and buckling down in class?

Kylie Minogue8:53

Yeah, that was pretty good until I actually did get involved in Showbiz. And then I was sidetracked. When I was sixteen, I was in a a mini series which took six months. It was called The Henderson Kids. And we got to spend time away from home. Obviously, we had tutors, but

Kylie Minogue9:10

I have to confess I was not that interested in going back to school. I did and passed by the skin of my teeth, but I did pass.

Presenter9:19

You you took up residence in Ramsey Street then as this tomboy car mechanic famously, Charlene.

Kylie Minogue9:23

Sleep sharing.

Presenter9:25

1986. What did you think of the show?

Kylie Minogue9:26

And the show? Well, the show was kind of in in its infancy, so it wasn't this huge success that it became, particularly in this country. I mean, it's a it's a success in Australia, but it's a phenomenon in the UK. I had signed up for the doll once I finished school, so I was just happy to get a job.

Presenter9:45

Let's have some more music, Kylie. We're on your third. Tell me about this.

Kylie Minogue9:49

Oh, okay. When I was

Kylie Minogue9:51

trying to think of my eight songs as a castaway. The only song that I knew was definite from the beginning was the theme song from the movie Cinema Paradiso, which is by Ennio Morricone, and it brings me to tears every time. So if you'll excuse me, I'll just be crying in the corner.

Presenter10:45

Ennio Morricone with the theme song from the soundtrack to Cinema Paradiso played there by the Orchestra Unioni Musicisti of Rome.

Presenter10:53

Tell me about then the beginning of this pop career. It came out of Neighbours and the fact that that had made you a star, a huge star in Britain and something of a star in other parts of the world, as we know. Um do the locomotion or the locomotion I think it's called, but I call it Tooth Locomotion. What was your first uh single, nineteen eighty seven?

Kylie Minogue10:58

And

Presenter11:08

That led to you being invited by Stock Aiken and Waterman, who were at that time very successful pop producers. How much input did did you have? I mean, famously, you know,

Kylie Minogue11:16

Oh, I had none. I had zero. And you know what? I think that worked perfectly at the time. Sometime later, I'm curious and I like to learn and I like to do. So there was a period where I became more frustrated. I wanted to be more involved. But I mean, it was called the Hit Factory. There wasn't really much room to kind of hang around and get to know your craft, man. It was like, here it is, you're on a flight tonight, let's do it, go. So it worked out strangely.

Presenter11:39

It was like

Kylie Minogue11:45

Perfectly.

Presenter11:45

When you see, you know, there is this phenomenon now, I guess it's the equivalent to Neighbors at the Time of the you know, the talent show phenomenons like uh you know X X Factor of the Voice and so on.

Kylie Minogue11:52

Like a

Presenter11:55

And you see youngsters who have the stars in their eyes and they they try to put themselves out there being chewed up and spat out so often as they are. What what do you make of that these days?

Kylie Minogue12:05

Uh well I'm glad that my

Kylie Minogue12:08

journey wasn't like that. I mean, I would have given everything to be Olivia Newton John. She was like my idol. So I had those kind of dreams and desires to be that person. But I think when it really came down to it, it was more about the job, you making a living as opposed to

Kylie Minogue12:27

I want to get on that show and become an instant star. That wasn't that's not how it worked for me.

Presenter12:32

Tell me about your next piece of music, Kylie. It's your force.

Kylie Minogue12:35

Okay, well, talking about meeting childhood heroes, I did manage to meet this.

Kylie Minogue12:40

This incredible performer, Prince, um and I've chosen Purple Rain because I don't know how many times I went to see Purple Rain at the cinema with my girlfriend screaming at the top of our lungs.

Kylie Minogue12:51

I was obsessed with Prince. That's the beginning and the end of it.

Kylie Minogue12:55

I remember going on family drives and nagging my parents to put the cassette in and my dad just having conniptions at the lyrics of some of these songs, particularly a song called Nicky. If anyone knows the content of that, they'll know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 213:07

Yeah.

Kylie Minogue13:10

And of course when you're kind of fourteen, fifteen, like that.

Kylie Minogue13:14

But no, I I absolutely loved Prince and um

Presenter13:17

And it came full circle. You didn't end up recording with him, but there was a point at which you made a demo with him.

Kylie Minogue13:21

Yeah, I had this oh gosh.

Kylie Minogue13:24

I was introduced to him.

Kylie Minogue13:26

And another one of my brazen moments, I said, I'm making an album. Would you be interested in working with me? And he.

Kylie Minogue13:34

He he didn't say no and I went to Minneapolis and I hung out and

Kylie Minogue13:39

I mean, between him meeting ABBA, meeting Olivia Newton John, if I literally, if I told my 14-year-old self one day.

Kylie Minogue13:46

You're going to meet Bono, you're going to meet Unt John. I d I mean, I would have had an apoplexy right there.

Kylie Minogue13:53

But I think he liked he liked winding me up because I was young and obviously a bit kind of nervous around him.

Kylie Minogue13:59

And he said, So have you got your lyrics? I uh I don't I have anything.

Kylie Minogue14:06

So I wrote some lyrics really quickly and I'll never forget being home in London.

Kylie Minogue14:12

And

Kylie Minogue14:13

His driver arrived, hand delivered a cassette, put it in and hear Prince singing a song with lyrics that I'd given to him. We never did anything with it. I n w we never kind of we never worked together. But just that story alone is amazing for me.

Presenter14:30

Is it

Speaker 414:34

I never meant to call you when you found roller

Speaker 414:42

I never meant to call on you, pain

Speaker 414:50

I don't know what I want to send that to you like me

Speaker 415:04

But don't break

Presenter15:09

That was Prince and Purple Rain. I should tell listeners, Kylie, that you said just as we went into that piece of music, and the thing about princes, we're the same height in heels.

Kylie Minogue15:17

Smear.

Presenter15:18

So you could look him bang in the eye when you were chatting to him. The list of child movie and music stars.

Kylie Minogue15:20

Yeah.

Presenter15:26

whose later lives have been, frankly, ruined by being a star young is a long and sad one. Why do you think you had the resilience to somehow bounce out of that and into adulthood in the way you did?

Kylie Minogue15:35

And so

Kylie Minogue15:39

Um

Kylie Minogue15:40

My family.

Kylie Minogue15:42

No matter what happens, I know, I know unequivocally that they're there.

Kylie Minogue15:49

Um

Kylie Minogue15:50

I have had my moments, of course, I've had especially when

Kylie Minogue15:55

I was just starting and and it was pretty crazy and you know the press can be s so horrible at times. There was definitely a period where I had my version of a breakdown.

Presenter16:07

Is this when you were young? This is y young.

Kylie Minogue16:08

This is when I don't I can't remember exactly when it was. It might have been when I was doing Neighbors and music. I know it was a period where I was copying it a lot in the press. There was a lot of stress around then, a lot of a lot of work, a lot on my shoulders.

Kylie Minogue16:24

And I do recall on top of that thinking, why people being so mean? What I'm just trying to get things done here. People, people! But it's.

Kylie Minogue16:35

Probably a really cheesy thing to say, but

Kylie Minogue16:37

Kylie does mean boomerang.

Presenter16:39

Right. Yeah.

Kylie Minogue16:40

So

Kylie Minogue16:41

I do my best to come back.

Presenter16:42

Right. Tell me about something called the Ego Jacket.

Kylie Minogue16:45

Oh yeah.

Kylie Minogue16:47

Um Michael Hutchins told me about the ego jacket. He

Kylie Minogue16:51

Said that that's what you put on when you go out, when you go and do your thing, because you can be feeling.

Kylie Minogue16:57

Far less than shiny and ready to dazzle thousands and thousands of people, but

Kylie Minogue17:05

That's what you have to do, so I guess he put on e an ego jacket and I put on a few sparkles.

Presenter17:11

1989, I think it was, you started going out with each other. And up until then, of course, you had been this sort of beautifully.

Kylie Minogue17:13

I'm not sure.

Presenter17:18

Scrubbed, wholesome, wide-eyed, little lick of mascara, and a nice off-the-shoulder white top kind of a Kylie. And I was that. And then you weren't.

Kylie Minogue17:24

I I know I was that

Presenter17:28

Then you turned up then you turned up at a movie premiere in a sort of Bugle beaded mini mini with a sort of cropped hairdo and this rocker on your arm and everybody did

Kylie Minogue17:28

Then you turn

Kylie Minogue17:33

With a sign.

Kylie Minogue17:37

Yeah.

Speaker 417:37

I love it.

Presenter17:38

Not a double tick. Possibly a quadruple t.

Speaker 417:39

Uh

Kylie Minogue17:39

Possibly a quadruple thing.

Presenter17:42

What's happened to little Kylie? What did it feel like to you? What had happened to you?

Kylie Minogue17:43

It feels like to you

Kylie Minogue17:46

Um no, how can I even

Kylie Minogue17:49

Be succinct about that.

Kylie Minogue17:52

I I met a new person and I fell in love and

Kylie Minogue17:55

Yes, he was this wild guy, he was the rocker, he was all of that, but I'm always at pains to say he was Byronesque, he was poetic, he was

Kylie Minogue18:05

cultured and hilarious and and tender. He was all of these other things.

Kylie Minogue18:10

And I guess I was at that the perfect age, I was twenty-one years old, to

Kylie Minogue18:16

get the butterfly wings and go out into the world and

Kylie Minogue18:19

We collided at that time and I guess he just fast-tracked some of it.

Kylie Minogue18:24

And it was a glorious time. I I loved it.

Presenter18:26

You dated for what, a couple of years? Yeah. Many years later, it was towards I think it it was the late nineties, nineteen ninety seven, Michael Hutchins, who had been a worldwide star, was of course very sadly found dead in a hotel room. And there were some very poignant images of the time of you and many other of his famous friends racked with the sadness of having lost a good friend.

Kylie Minogue18:36

Um

Presenter18:47

I wonder what you feel his legacy to you was, both, you know, personally and artistically.

Kylie Minogue18:56

Mm, personally.

Kylie Minogue18:58

He he

Kylie Minogue19:01

I'd never felt like I had blinkers on, but

Kylie Minogue19:06

He took them off. I could go on, but um

Speaker 219:08

But uh

Kylie Minogue19:09

And

Kylie Minogue19:11

Professionally

Kylie Minogue19:13

He was so supportive.

Kylie Minogue19:16

Someone called me the singing budgie in Australia as a as a a knock. So I did this warm up gig and we said it's the singing budgie singing budgies. Take that, own it and go out. And we did this little gig and I was so

Kylie Minogue19:29

Inexperienced at doing live performance. I feel like my career is backwards. I started successful and then I had to learn everything in front of everyone.

Kylie Minogue19:37

But I mean, he was uber, uber famous. He's an icon already. And he was in the middle of the audience just gazing up at me and just willing me willing me with all of his heart and his love to do well. And he believed in me. And it was a time when

Kylie Minogue19:53

So many people didn't. It's getting me very much shocked.

Presenter19:58

Tell me what we're gonna hear now.

Kylie Minogue19:59

So

Kylie Minogue20:01

This song is uh Need You Tonight, which

Kylie Minogue20:06

was released before I met him. The entire world fell in love with it.

Kylie Minogue20:11

I performed on my last World Tour.

Kylie Minogue20:14

And I literally would kind of have a word to him in my mind before I performed it every night because.

Kylie Minogue20:23

Throwing back to talking about what did he teach me.

Kylie Minogue20:26

Professionally, because I really didn't know what I was doing and I used to be so nervous on stage.

Kylie Minogue20:32

I just kept moving. I was far more comfortable dancing than singing, and one of the most important things he

Kylie Minogue20:41

imparted some wisdom he imparted to me was, he said, You know, it's okay to be still.

Kylie Minogue20:46

There's a lot of power in the stillness, and so when I performed this song.

Kylie Minogue20:52

I don't move from the microphone stand. The song is perfect and it was lovely to kind of dedicate that to him every night.

Speaker 421:07

I need to do that.

Speaker 421:11

Cause I'm not sleeping

Speaker 421:15

That's something I'm about to girl.

Speaker 421:20

That makes me sweat.

Speaker 421:28

I'm lonely.

Speaker 421:32

Can't take it off.

Presenter21:38

In excess, need you tonight. Uh your single, Kylie Spinning Around, was released in July, I think it was, of two thousand as you took off the headphones in the little glass booth when you'd laid down the voice track for that, did you know?

Kylie Minogue21:47

The win

Presenter21:50

Boom, there's a hit.

Kylie Minogue21:51

It had to go through a few different processes and eventually

Kylie Minogue21:55

It was produced to the version that we all went, Yep, that's it. But it was only after that that of course the video kind of complemented it and the Gold Hot Pants took it to another level. We knew there was something.

Presenter22:07

I'm so glad that phrase gold hot pants came out of your mouth before it came out of mine, because I was wa how I was thinking, how do I talk about the gold hot pants? I don't want to introduce her career. She's more than gold hot pants. So yes, let's talk about it.

Kylie Minogue22:13

Talk about the gold corporate.

Kylie Minogue22:16

She's more than

Kylie Minogue22:18

So I think it's hilarious.

Presenter22:19

Okay.

Kylie Minogue22:20

Yeah.

Presenter22:20

So le I was gonna say let's talk about sex, but actually what I mean is let's talk about your sexuality. So there is the music, there are those beautifully produced tracks that people want to get up in a disco it's a club now, isn't it? Get up in a club and dance to disco.

Kylie Minogue22:31

Yeah.

Kylie Minogue22:32

I wouldn't say disc to the disco temp.

Presenter22:35

Um yes, so your sexuality, it it it is very much bound up.

Kylie Minogue22:39

Mm-hmm.

Presenter22:39

With what it is you're offering people. And the gold hot pants, of course, were the sort of zenith of that. You were on a bar spinning around, there were a lot of very close shots.

Kylie Minogue22:41

Yeah.

Speaker 422:42

Yeah.

Kylie Minogue22:42

Yeah.

Kylie Minogue22:44

Ronapa.

Kylie Minogue22:49

Do you know, I didn't know the shots were quite that close until later. I mean, this is where I I am a contradiction within myself because

Kylie Minogue22:58

Right beforehand, I'm completely covered up in a robe. I'm thinking, oh god, I don't want to take this off. I'm so shy, but once it's and action.

Kylie Minogue23:07

something else happens, but uh

Kylie Minogue23:09

There's a part of me that is a total prude as well. Once in a while, yeah.

Presenter23:13

Where does that exhibit itself?

Kylie Minogue23:15

Because it's not Yeah. No, it's not.

Presenter23:16

Uh

Kylie Minogue23:17

My video is

Presenter23:18

It's not in the videos. There are people who are genuinely totally uninhibited about their bodies, you know, who would happily walk around nude in a house full of people as they get out of the shower, not blink an eyelid.

Kylie Minogue23:26

Definitely less so now. I think I mean, I used to be on the beach topless and, you know, God used to wear a G string on the beach. Oh my God, the thought of it now is just too much to handle. But I I do think I'm pretty kind of liberated with all of that. But uh I think I've kind of made peace with

Kylie Minogue23:45

That sexuality in my work. There was a time where maybe I was sick of being asked about it, but I made a conscious effort to kind of stop some of that. But it is part of my character and

Kylie Minogue23:56

I'm n never comfortable if I have to block any part of my character. I feel like that's you're not being true to yourself, you're not being your whole.

Presenter24:03

Um what are you going to choose now? We're we're going to hear your um your sixth.

Kylie Minogue24:07

Okay, the next song is by Colin Hay, who i is from the band Men at Work, who famously sung.

Kylie Minogue24:15

I come from the land down under. It's called Beautiful World, and my brother played it to me within the last kind of six months. And I just thought it was so simple and lovely, and Colin's voice is beautiful, and it reminds me of being home on our family farm, which is a beautiful escape for me.

Speaker 424:35

My ma ma, it's a beautiful world.

Speaker 424:41

I like driving in my car.

Speaker 424:47

I'll roll the top down, sometimes it'll travel quite far.

Speaker 424:52

Drive to the ocean.

Speaker 424:55

Stare up at the stars.

Speaker 424:59

I like driving in my car.

Speaker 425:04

All of

Presenter25:05

That was Colin Hay and Beautiful World. So Kylie, you were well into a world tour in 2005 when you were diagnosed with breast cancer. And for any person who gets that diagnosis, it is obviously

Speaker 425:12

And for any

Presenter25:17

A time of great worry and a time of great stress. But when you have the worry and stress that is accompanied by having to announce that you are pulling out of a tour to which

Kylie Minogue25:19

Some buttons

Kylie Minogue25:23

If I have

Presenter25:27

Countless thousands of people have bought tickets and are waiting to see you, and also with all of the scrutiny of the world's media on you, it must surely bring so.

Kylie Minogue25:29

And all

Presenter25:35

much more difficulty to the situation.

Kylie Minogue25:39

Uh it was yeah, it was it was intense. Some of it is is a a bit of a blur. Um

Kylie Minogue25:48

But

Kylie Minogue25:49

I I I think I decided really quickly that

Kylie Minogue25:53

I had to say what was going on. I mean, I was due on stage in two or three days. I had to have a pretty good reason not to turn up.

Kylie Minogue26:00

Um

Kylie Minogue26:01

I remember having

Kylie Minogue26:04

a day before we made the announcement and and walking around.

Kylie Minogue26:08

Melbourne.

Kylie Minogue26:09

With my brother and and my boyfriend at the time. And uh it was so weird because

Kylie Minogue26:16

I don't know what planet I was on. I was I was somewhere else.

Kylie Minogue26:20

And yet my body is walking through the actual world at the same time as I'm somewhere else. And I remember being in a just stopping in a cafe and normal chat. The waiter says, Okay, how are you guys doing today?

Kylie Minogue26:36

Good, thanks. And I remember thinking, Oh my god, tomorrow this same person's

Kylie Minogue26:42

will hear the news.

Kylie Minogue26:43

That I just got yesterday.

Kylie Minogue26:46

And it's just how weird that will be.

Presenter26:47

Hmm.

Kylie Minogue26:50

I I wouldn't say in that first moment it w it just it was

Kylie Minogue26:55

I think we I think we were just stunned basically. Um but as it kind of progressed and

Kylie Minogue27:01

Then you go through all the

Kylie Minogue27:04

meetings with different specialists in this and that and what

Kylie Minogue27:07

Telling you more of what has to be done, and this is when it has to be done, and these are your options.

Kylie Minogue27:12

I mean

Kylie Minogue27:14

You don't want to hear any of it, and yet you have to.

Kylie Minogue27:19

And just seeing my parents and my family, but particularly my parents.

Kylie Minogue27:25

Going through that was

Kylie Minogue27:27

Really, really difficult.

Presenter27:29

Have there been times that you've thought I don't want to talk about this?

Kylie Minogue27:32

Um yes, to be honest, yeah, there there are times.

Kylie Minogue27:37

It's hard to talk about it in little sound bites or just kind of make to to kind of gloss over it as I'm as I'm trying to do now.

Kylie Minogue27:47

Because it it

Kylie Minogue27:49

You know,

Kylie Minogue27:51

Subject, and it's a deep experience. But it was a fact, it happened, and

Kylie Minogue27:57

You know, to this day I still have people

Kylie Minogue28:00

Come up to me and share those kind of stories or thank me for being an inspiration to them.

Kylie Minogue28:07

And then I think that's great because I had my inspirations, and you really.

Kylie Minogue28:12

benefit from having someone to look up to or someone to ask very practical questions.

Presenter28:18

What did the what did the experience change in you? What are the different

Kylie Minogue28:21

Something

Presenter28:21

Something.

Kylie Minogue28:23

On one hand it didn't change too much.

Kylie Minogue28:26

Because I didn't

Kylie Minogue28:27

decide I wanted to change my lifestyle or change my career.

Kylie Minogue28:31

I was actually more determined to get back and do it and I thought

Kylie Minogue28:36

I'm not done yet. I'm I'm not

Kylie Minogue28:38

Finished?

Kylie Minogue28:39

This is n not where I want to say goodbye.

Kylie Minogue28:42

Um

Kylie Minogue28:44

Of course you learn a lot about yourself and about other people.

Kylie Minogue28:47

and about life and and and and what resilience means and what love means and and what good health means.

Presenter28:54

Uh

Kylie Minogue28:54

Uh

Presenter28:55

Uh

Kylie Minogue28:55

Yeah.

Presenter28:55

Your seventh choice, no.

Kylie Minogue28:56

Okay, so this is.

Presenter28:58

This is a first for us, I have to say, in our 74-year history.

Kylie Minogue28:58

This is the first

Kylie Minogue29:02

Wow. I'm very pleased about that.

Kylie Minogue29:06

I I have a love in my life, which is just a beautiful thing, and I'm just.

Kylie Minogue29:10

I'm kind of on Cloud9 most of the time.

Kylie Minogue29:13

Because of mister Joshua Sasse, my beau. And not our first date, but the first time we we really kind of spoke at length and and had a meal, Desert Island Discs came up. He's a huge fan of the show.

Kylie Minogue29:29

And then it was a few weeks later that this opportunity came up for me and I thought, synchronicity, I have to do this, I have to do it for me and I have to do it for him.

Kylie Minogue29:39

And I thought that I would like to have.

Kylie Minogue29:41

A surprise from Josh. I don't know what he's done, but I figured if I was a castaway on an island

Kylie Minogue29:47

I'd very much like to have a surprise, and I'd like to know what someone else thought.

Kylie Minogue29:54

Particularly, my love, what he would think that I would like to hear.

Presenter30:00

That's in it.

Speaker 230:01

Together we shall taste the enchanted past.

Speaker 230:05

like anointed lovers entwine.

Speaker 230:08

We shall tread that merry avenue of beeches.

Speaker 230:12

A tinsel to shimmer.

Speaker 230:14

This way.

Speaker 230:19

Once past the mansion gates I would bend To press my eager face into your neck.

Speaker 230:25

where the secret flesh is furred like peaches behind a curtain of caramel scented curls.

Speaker 230:33

Without asking, I would pull you down.

Speaker 230:36

With my devoted hands to express

Speaker 230:39

My fluent tongue to endear

Speaker 230:43

We would smear our mouths with ardent kisses.

Speaker 230:47

And cry aloud from loving as we lay

Speaker 230:51

Beneath the arches of their careless, wanton day

Kylie Minogue30:58

I'm a mess.

Presenter31:00

What did you think?

Presenter31:03

First of all, I need to give the credit. That was your beau, as you so elegantly described him, your boyfriend Josh Sass, and he was reading As I Look Up, it was written by Dominic Sass, who's his father.

Kylie Minogue31:06

Yeah.

Kylie Minogue31:12

I uh

Kylie Minogue31:14

I think I stopped breathing for half of that. No, okay, breathe.

Kylie Minogue31:19

That was absolutely beautiful. I have tears of joy. Tears of joy right now.

Presenter31:23

It's with you on your island then.

Presenter31:26

How do you imagine your future? You're you're forty seven now, as we know you've been through all of the success, you've been through a a life altering illness.

Presenter31:35

When you look ahead, what do you see?

Kylie Minogue31:38

I never looked too far ahead.

Kylie Minogue31:40

For me at the moment it's less about going forward and just kind of running forward. I feel like I'd done that for years and years and years. Now I'd like to go a bit slower, but but but look at the view.

Kylie Minogue31:52

I actually want more out of life, I really do.

Presenter31:55

What sort of things that you haven't done would you like to do?

Kylie Minogue31:57

Um well, who knows if if family is on any one of my horizons, I don't know. But if that were to happen that would be incredible.

Kylie Minogue32:08

I don't want to get stuck on the treadmill of doing the same thing. I just would like to experience other parts of life, which means.

Kylie Minogue32:15

I have to adapt my schedule.

Kylie Minogue32:18

Basically, it's doable. It's just a mindset and to make myself do it.

Presenter32:23

Tell me about your final track then. What are we gonna hear?

Kylie Minogue32:26

I'm afraid it won't be a brand new addition to Desert Island Discs. It's Louis Armstrong with What a Wonderful World.

Speaker 432:38

I see trees of green.

Speaker 432:42

Red roof is too

Speaker 432:46

I see them blue.

Speaker 432:49

Find me in here.

Speaker 432:51

And I think to myself.

Speaker 432:56

What a wonderful world

Speaker 433:04

As is

Presenter33:05

Louis Armstrong, what a wonderful world It's time now, kindly, for me to give you the books I give every castaway.

Presenter33:12

The Bible and the complete works of Shakspeare and they get to take another book to the Island. What's your book gonna be?

Kylie Minogue33:18

Well, I figured that I'd need some help and Ray Mears has a host of books and any one of them would do to help me um build a fire, build a raft, whatever needs be.

Presenter33:30

We'll find his thickest and most useful survival guide, and we will give it to you.

Kylie Minogue33:33

Survival guide and we will give it

Presenter33:35

Ah a luxury too.

Kylie Minogue33:37

Oh, a photo album. I I tried to be more inventive, but actually we have so many photo albums at home. I think my parents were very good at taking photographs. And I just I just love them so much. So if they wouldn't mind parting with them just for my stay on the island

Kylie Minogue33:53

I would just love to have him.

Presenter33:56

Okay, we shall give you that, a collection of the family photo albums.

Kylie Minogue33:58

Thank you.

Presenter33:59

And if you had to save just one track from the waves, which one would it be?

Kylie Minogue34:03

It would have to be as I look up.

Kylie Minogue34:06

As read by Mr. Joshua Sass.

Presenter34:08

It's yours. Kylie Minoak, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Kylie Minogue34:11

Thank you so much.

Presenter34:53

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website, bbc.co.uk slash Radio 4.