Silverchair Frontman Reveals Battle with Anorexia
Daniel Johns has a secret he’s only now telling — and anyone’s
free to hear it. The Silverchair frontman has used his music,
rather than the Ricki Lake show, to reveal his on-going battle with
anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that primarily affects women.|
“Ana’s Song (Open Fire),” the new single from the trio’s Neon
Ballroom, is a frank assessment of Johns’ life with the
disease, an addiction to starvation that, he says, made him “eat
what he needed…to stay awake.”
“I’ve been told that it’s when you feel like you’ve lost control of
your life and you start really controlling anything you can
control,” says Johns, “and it just so happens to be the one thing
no one can tell you what to do.”
The lyrics to “Ana’s Song” can’t be misinterpreted: “And you’re my
obsession/I love you to the bones/And Ana wrecks your life/Like an
anorexia life.” Johns explains, “I wasn’t eating and it went on for
about six months to a year.”
Today, Johns still appears quite thin and confesses, “I don’t think
you can ever be totally cured from something like that until you go
and get professional help, but it’s definitely better than it was
before.” Johns says he’ll seek more diligent treatment once this
tour is out of the way.
“I’ll do it once we’ve done all this album stuff, when I’ve got
more time to focus on myself and not just the music.”