Guy Sebastian Hits Back At "Keyboard Warriors" Following Hottest 100 Placing

1 February 2017 | 9:56 am | Staff Writer

"There are serial complainers. I think people get addicted to negativity."

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After placing in last week's Hottest 100Guy Sebastian has hit back at the "serial complainers" who weren't happy with the singer cracking the annual triple j countdown. 

The inaugural Australian Idol winner's collaboration with Gold Coast artist, PacesKeeping Score, came in at #56.

"Some people are sitting their with their fingers primed, waiting to be angry about something, hate on something," Sebastian said in an interview with News Corp.

"There are serial complainers. I think people get addicted to negativity. I just don’t bother anymore. I've had random people on the street who've said ‘Oh dude, how sick is it you’re in the Hottest 100’ and people on planes or shopping centres over the past week who’ve been so lovely.

"I haven't had one single person tell me to my face I shouldn’t have been on there, it's just the keyboard warriors.

"It used to bother me, definitely. I'm very opinionated about what is deemed as credible. It's hard to articulate without sounding bitter or that I'm trying to justify my position as a pop artist, which I don't feel I need to. So I just don't address it and just go with it. I'm trying to figure out where the line is. It's really what people deem as 'cool' rather than 'credible' at the end of the day. There's artists triple j would openly admit they would never play. So it definitely becomes less about music and more about perception, the cool factor."

Sebastian admitted that when he took to the stage at last year's Splendour In The Grass with Paces, he wasn't sure how the crowd would react. 

"The reaction was really encouraging to me," the 35-year-old said.

"There's so much attention paid to that small, loud negative voice. Even I went into Splendour thinking I had to wear a musical bullet proof vest. Literally not one negative thing was said to me, not even a negative look. I went on stage to soundcheck my keyboard and everyone cheered.

"They all love Paces, it's like if Paces endorses me they're cool with it. Even walking to different stages everyone was really positive. It's really not that many people, it's just those purists who love to hate."

As for placing in the Hottest 100 itself, Sebastian said the news was "unexpected".

"On the day I was at a park with my family having a picnic barbecue and playing cricket. This lady wandered over and said 'You were just in the Hottest 100, congratulations'. That was a sentence I didn’t really expect to hear.

"Obviously it's not one of my songs, it’s with Paces, but it’s cool to be part of something that made the Hottest 100. If you asked me a few years ago if it's be on triple j's Hottest 100 in any capacity I wouldn’t have believed you. It's definitely nice."