Daniel Johns Hits Back At Ben Gillies

The second episode of ex-silverchair frontman Daniel Johns' YouTube series 'In The Mind Of Daniel Johns' has dropped and he opens up further about the rift that has broken out between him and his former bandmates. In a now-deleted social media post, drummer Ben Gillies questioned the 'genius' tag that has been been thrown at Johns' throughout the campaign for his #1 album FutureNever. 

Host Megan Holiday addresses the situation with Johns:

“While you were in this recovery process, there was quite a stir online and Ben made some comments about your genius status that fans often say about you. And he said he reserves the term genius for Einstein and Mozart and without orchestration from other people that your songs are simple." 

Johns seemed unaware of the comments, but quickly admitted that the relationship with his former bandmates had broken down. 

"To be honest, I've tried to mend that bridge. I've tried and I've gone out of my way to speak positively about him, even when I did my podcast. I didn't want to do any harm to our legacy, so I don't know. If he wants to be like that, it doesn't affect me. I'm not going to be offended and say "but I AM a genius". The entire White Album is pretty simple and I would consider that genius. Every Clash album, particularly London Calling is simple, so that shit's hard. Who the fuck knows what genius is? I don't consider myself a genius"

Addressing the breakdown of silverchair, Johns revealed the extent of the rift, particularly between himself and Gillies. 

"I was really clear with everyone when I left silverchair that we weren't getting back together. I had in the past thought that I wanted to leave silverchair and changed my mind, so my manager at the time quite intelligently suggested we say we're on an indefinite hiatus. I made it very clear to the other two that it's over but that I didn't want to close that door or break anyone's heart in case I changed my mind. But I made it very clear to Ben and Chris. And then Ben actually went out of his way to say we were definitely getting back together while I was in the middle of a promotional tour for my first record 'Talk', which I thought was really unfair to silverchair fans. I was caught in this 'who am i supposed to appease?'. I was in a situation where I was really trying to protect our legacy because that's really important to me. I pretty much gave up my childhood for that and I thought it was really unfair to keep dangling a carrot in front of people who had supported us, knowing full well that I was never going back. So me being me, I said I wouldn't get silverchair back together for a million dollars with a gun to my head."

In episode one of the series, Johns revealed that his attempts to reach out to Ben and Chris were rebuffed, making it clear that a reunion has never been further from being a possibility. 

In the latest episode, Johns also addressed the question of performing live, stating "I would never say never, but its not likely. I don't like putting labels on stuff. It puts me in trouble, but now I try to avoid any boundaries or anything around me that resembles a cage. Restriction? That's the thing that makes me go internal and makes me go crazy. I'm not saying never, but it's unlikely. I wouldn't get Daniel Johns back together for $50 million with a gun to my head."

Johns has had an up and down year, being arrested for high range drink driving and sentenced to community service just weeks before releasing his first album in seven years. FutureNever dropped in April, debuting at #2 before ascending to #1 a few weeks later with twenty different cassette versions of the album pushing the record to the top spot. The album's tracks have had over two million streams on Spotify.