Shannon Noll reveals the tragic way he lost his Australian Idol money
Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll made a killing after the show thanks to a record deal and a string of top 10 hits, but his fortune didn’t last long.
The 42-year-old, who is currently in the South African jungle competing in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Australia, opened up about the hardships he faced before and after his Idol stint.
Speaking to campmate Fiona O’Loughlin, Noll revealed that yesterday would have been his father’s 73rd birthday, but that he had been killed years earlier after a farming accident left him with a catastrophic brain injury. The tragedy rocked the Noll family.
“It has ruined mum, you know,” he said. “Mum is not so tough. She will never be the same… with the sons, we had our own kids and our partners, we had things to occupy our minds… but she is in a house in a cold bed every night. Just a constant reminder everywhere she turns.
“It’s the hardship of getting left behind. [That] began for her then and it has never stopped.”
Not only did the loss take a huge emotional toll, but Noll and his family were left in dire financial straits as they tried to keep the farm running in his father’s absence.
“We tried to farm our way out of it in the next two years. We failed because of the drought so we got enough rain to put the crop in and then it didn’t rain at all after that. That cost $40 or 50 grand at a time for fuel, seed, spray. So we went further into debt.”
Shortly after, the family made the heartbreaking decision to cut their losses and say goodbye to their farm.
Fortunately, things began to look up for Noll, whose appearance on Idol launched his successful music career.
But far from the usual things rock stars spend their money on – expensive cars, big houses etc. – for Noll, there was only one thing he could put his earnings towards.
“I wrote a cash cheque out for $209,000 for a tractor company. I thought I was doing the right thing - I’d never run a business before. So I paid a lot of these debts out. Consequently all the big money I made after the show, I paid bills with it,” he said.
“I didn’t blow it on yachts and all that sort of stuff. Just paid [bills].”
Image credit: Channel 10.