Hamish Blake reveals single most life-changing interview moment
Hamish Blake has revealed the A-list celebrity's candid answer to an interview questions that had a profound impact on his perspective.
The radio and TV host appeared on the latest episode of the ABC program The Assembly, in which celebrities appear in front of a classroom of Australian university students, all of whom are autistic and studying journalism, and have permission to ask whatever questions they want.
After Blake's extensive career, student Silas was keen to ask about what celebrity had the biggest impact on him.
“You’ve interviewed a lot of people over the years, what answer to a question has most changed your perspective on life?” Silas asked a clearly-impressed Blake.
“Ooooh … really good,” he responded.
“We had Richard Branson on [Hamish and Andy], and one of the guys on our radio show, Jack, he basically said to him, ‘You are a billionaire. Can we just go downstairs to the ATM, can you give me a thousand dollars? It’s nothing to you but it will change my month’.”
Blake went on to explain that the British entrepreneur gave a surprising response that has stayed with him ever since.
“He was like, ‘I’ll tell you what – there’s something I’d give you all my money for’, and Jack’s like, ‘really?’ and [Richard] goes, ‘your age’.
“I was like, that’s interesting. Jack was 22, and we were like, ‘What do you mean by that?’ and he said, 'I’d happily be broke and 22 than a billionaire and 68’, or whatever he was at the time.”
Blake said the answer had "always stuck with him" and given him a new appreciation for ageing and freedom.
“It’s true. I think that it will be true for all of us. As we get older, you’re like, ‘OK, money’s thing in life, a tool that can certainly take some bad situations and discomfort away, but it’s not happiness’. It’s nowhere near the exhilaration of getting to live, and all the best stuff is free,” he said.
“I think about that all the time … That always stuck with me, that idea that we’ve got something immediately available to us, that in the future we’d give all our material possessions for.”
Image credits: ABC