Darren Hayes has taken to his Instagram page to formally respond to a fan writing to him asking for a reunion of Savage Garden, the Brisbane pop duo with which he first made his name. The fan, whose identity was not shared in the post, had written to Hayes to say that a reunion between himself and instrumentalist Daniel Jones would be “nice and beautiful”.
The post, which is largely in broken English, says that the writer rediscovered the band after hearing ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ on the radio while at work, and were now listening to ‘I Knew I Loved You’ on an “infinite loop”. In response, Hayes noted that, while he “love[s] that people love Savage Garden,” and that he himself does as well, he is frustrated when “some people don’t know that I have never stopped singing the songs”. “It’s a guardianship of cherished memories, and I will always perform these songs and protect them because they belong to you,” he said.
“I get nostalgia – but there is always a reason a relationship ends. Doesn’t matter if that’s romantic or business. People break up for a reason, and it’s usually for the best. For what it’s worth: I never left. And I never left you. I just continued. If you don’t know that: Maybe you left me?”
Savage Garden – ‘I Want You’
Hayes and Jones originally formed Savage Garden in 1994 under the moniker of Crush. They released two albums, Savage Garden in 1997 and Affirmation in 1999. Both were major commercial successes, each topping the ARIA Albums chart and going 12 and eight times platinum in Australia respectively. The group were also the last Australian act to top the Billboard Hot 100 for over a decade, following ‘I Knew I Loved You’ reaching the top in 1999.
The pair acrimoniously split in 2001, with Hayes going on to a solo career that has spawned five solo albums – the most recent of which, Homosexual, was released in 2022. Jones largely remained inactive following the split, and has retreated from public life to focus on raising his children. In the ensuing 24 years, Hayes has been asked repeatedly about a reunion between he and Jones – leading to a famous quote in the 2000s, where he said he would “only do it if it cured cancer”.
In 2022, while promoting Homosexual, Hayes said in an interview on Kyle & Jackie-O that he “would have been in that band forever”, but Jones’ reticence towards the life of a touring pop musician halted their momentum. “His leaving was a huge rug pulled out from under me, and for contractual reasons we couldn’t really talk about it,” Hayes said at the time. “He held that press conference where he said, ‘Oh, this is the first I’ve heard of it’ – which was such a stupid thing to say, because people thought I’d left the band.” In a Nova interview in 2024, Hayes revealed that Jones had “reached out” several times to public go on the record and apologise, which Hayes declined.
Savage Garden reentered the discourse in Australia recently following their appearance in both triple j’s Hottest 100 Of Australian Songs and the supplementary Hottest 200 Of Australian Songs. ‘I Want You’ charted at number 96 in the main list, while both ‘To The Moon And Back’ and ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ were in the 200 at numbers 114 and 107, respectively.
Further Reading
Darren Hayes: The Sounds That Inspired His New Album ‘Homosexual’
Tonight Alive Take On A Savage Garden Classic For Triple J’s ‘Like A Version’
Tony Abbott Said He’s A Savage Garden Fan But The Love Is Not Mutual
