Shannon Noll Reveals He Lost 'Australian Idol' Earnings Trying To Save Family Farm

No matter what your musical proclivity, we all have a soft spot for living meme/rightful Australian Idol winner Shannon Noll. So it’s understandable why it was all the more heartbreaking when he detailed the noble way he lost his fortune in the beginning of his career.

As reported by Newscorp, the singer stole away on last night’s episode of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here with comedian Fiona O’Loughlin to share a story that began with the unexpected death of his father just before his big break on Australia Idol.

"It has ruined Mum, you know. 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," Noll said.

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He then went on to detail that the financial stress started to weigh as much as the emotional turmoil.

"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,"

The heartbreaking decision was then made to walk away from the family farm, which still didn’t stop debt collectors knocking down his door post-stardom.

"Big business, though, they don’t mind jumping on an opportunity I suppose. We just had enough to buy mum’s house. I went on Idol. A few of the creditors were left over, they chased mum really hard for the shortfall,"

"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."