Jane Gazzo Reveals ‘Nervous Breakdown’

Veteran music journalist, host and author Jane Gazzo has gone on the record to address her time at triple j, revealing that she experienced a “nervous breakdown” while working for the national youth broadcaster.

Speaking with Michael Parisi on the Vinyl Tap Podcast, which offers insights into the Australian music industry, she told Parisi that “my workload at triple j had almost become crippling.”

Her admission arrived after telling Parisi about the “really bizarre sequence of events” that led to her living in the UK from 1999 until 2007. “I wasn’t coping,” she said about the workload at triple j before the big move. “I was in my early twenties, the stuff that was demanded of me being almost – I think it's fair to say I was the poster child of triple j – I wouldn't be speaking out of turn by saying that.

“I had the television profile, and I was doing, by this stage, Super Request and Good Nights, five nights a week,” she said. “But then I was being pulled in every direction. ABC TV wanted me to do little vignettes whereby we would go to, say, South Melbourne Market and talk about some of the things coming up on ABC TV this week. Things like that. I would be asked to appear on ABC local radio to give the Youth Culture Vulture Vibe. Basically, I was working nonstop.”

After Parisi asked Gazzo if she was burning out, she answered, “Oh my goodness, did I burn out, Michael. It was crazy, and I didn't think to ask for help or say, ‘Hey, I'm drowning here. I can't deal with this’.

“And, so, it got so bad – there were times I remember sitting in the Triple J boardroom one day in Melbourne, crying, not wanting to go on air.” Parisi clarified that Gazzo was feeling anxiety around work at the time, to which she said, “I had a nervous breakdown. I could not hold it together. It was draining, I daresay.

“Thinking back on it, if there had been social media at that point, I think it would have killed me. I really do.”

The pair discussed mental health, with Parisi and Gazzo agreeing that there’s nothing wrong with having those moments in your career, particularly when working long hours. “Was it the pressure of being a spokesperson for the so-called Youth Movement?” Parisi asked. “There was pressure being the spokesperson; there was so much riding on me saying yes to everything,” Gazzo said.

She continued, “I felt I couldn't say no; I didn't know how to say no. And I also wanted to appear professional – there was something in me that said, ‘Oh, if I say no, they're going to hate me; they're never going to ask me to work again’. And also just not eating correctly, things like that. And no one actually saying, ‘Hey, do you need a hand? Can I make your work life easier?’ I didn't know how to ask for help. But that's the naivety of youth.”

Sharing that she always felt like she had to be tough, Gazzo circled back to her nervous breakdown, telling Parisi, “I remember it now – [it was] December 1998. I had no idea. It's great I can talk about it now. So many years have passed, and I spent the first six months of 1999 wondering what the hell I'd done, regretting my decision going, ‘What am I gonna do with my life?’ So, come about three or four months into my self-imposed exile, and I wasn't working, I had to move in back with my dad because I couldn't pay the rent in my flat in Richmond.

“I had to work out what I was doing next. And I just felt that my skills or talents weren't wanted anywhere,” she said. “I had an agent, but we couldn't get any work. It was like the doors became shut for me here in Australia at that time. I was gutted. I was heartbroken. I had to really take stock of what I was going to do.

“I remember ringing up a certain person at triple j saying, ‘Okay, I've had my four months, I'm ready to come back’. And he just laughed at me. The doors firmly shut. A lot of people reached out and said, is everything okay? And I said I'm not. I'm not good. But yes, that door was firmly shut.” But Gazzo found more work in the UK and continued to work in the Australian music industry from 2007 to this day.

At the 2023 Australian Women In Music Awards (AWMAs), Jane Gazzo took out the Music Journalist award, which was sponsored by The Music.

You can listen to the remainder of Jane Gazzo’s episode of the Vinyl Tap Podcast with Michael Parisi below.

If you or someone you know is suffering from depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or other mental-related illness, we implore you to get in contact with Beyondblue or Lifeline:

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