EXCLUSIVE: Author Of Unauthorised John Farnham Biography Hits Back After Singer Slams Book

The author of the latest unauthorised biography on Aussie icon John Farnham has responded to comments made by the singer who slammed the book and called it a "bloody nuisance".

Speaking to The Music, Jeff Apter, the man behind Playing To Win which hit shelves just last month, has described some of Farnsie's comments as "inaccurate".

In an interview with Herald Sun, Farnham said of the book, "I’ve spoken to no one, they’ve spoken to no one I know or care about.

"They’re unauthorised. They’re a bloody nuisance. People bring them up to me and ask me to sign them and they’re the only things I refuse to sign."

However Apter, who has written a number of books on high profile music names like Jeff Buckley, Silverchair and the Bee Gees, insists that he worked heavily with Farnham's long-time manager Glenn Wheatley while writing the book.

"I sent [Wheatley] pretty much about a quarter of the book at a time," Apter says. 

"He came back to me at the end of the project and said 'Look, John won’t endorse this, but the book that you’ve written is the most honest and real portrait of John. Privately, I think it’s the best thing that’s ever been done about him and I think you should go ahead and publish it. But professionally, I can’t endorse it, nor will John.'"

"My attitude with unauthorised stuff is, you play it fair and square," Apter continues.

"You let the people know what you’re writing about, you let them comment on it. I typically don’t do hatchet jobs. I like to write readable historically worthwhile biographies of interesting people and that’s what I’ve done with this book. 

"While I totally endorse [John's] attitude of not speaking to anyone and so on, he's just a little bit inaccurate there saying that I haven’t spoken to anyone…Glenn Wheatley was as supportive with the book as he could be within his relationship with John Farnham, which is obviously a lot more important than his relationship with me."

Farnham also rejected claims that he was sacked from a 2006 Australian tour with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks; however, Apter says the claims in question relate to a recent dispute between Wheatley and tour promoter Andrew McManus as opposed to his book's version of events.

McManus alleged that Farnham was sacked from the tour for treating Nicks so poorly, however Wheatley dismissed the claims. 

"Glenn read everything that I wrote about the Stevie Nicks situation and he said ‘That's absolutely what happened,'" Apter said.

Apter's book alleges that the tour was a disaster and that Nicks tried her best to "make John’s set shorter and shorter".

"There’s a great comment. After the first night, they played in Brisbane, John came off first and blew the crowd away," Apter explains.

"Stevie came on and pretty much bored them and she came up to McManus the next day and said, ‘You didn’t tell me that I was playing with the Frank Sinatra of Australia'."

Apter is so adamant that his book is accurate, that he encourages Farnham to read it. 

"The book is certainly written in the right spirit and I think if John read it, he’d understand," he says.

"I’d like to think it’s a really good, accurate, readable snapshot of a guy whose life deserves this kind of coverage."

The comments come just months after it was again hinted that a TV biopic about the singer is in the works.

The Music has contacted Wheatley for comment.