JOHN FARNHAM - "He inspires us every day"

As John Farnham recovers from a battle with cancer, ahead of a new film about the legendary Australian singer's life, family and friends share his deeply personal story with The Weekly.

- SUE SMETHURST

Rob Farnham places his hand on his heart as he talks about his father, unwittingly drawing attention to a bold tattoo poking through the top of his shirt. The swirling cursive letters spell the title of his favourite song, Playing to Win, one of his dad John Farnham’s biggest hits, and a mantra the family has lived by for decades.

“I was in my 20s when I got it. I thought it was a good outlook to have on life,” says the 42-year-old actor and musician, noting that the script forever inked on his heart has taken on new significance of late.

“You have to keep positive and not get bogged down,” he tells The Weekly, referring to his father’s recent battle with cancer. “It’s cruel and brutal but they’re the cards you’re dealt in life and cancer doesn’t care who you are. We are really proud of him. He’s inspiring us every day, but then again, he always has.”

In August last year, the nation held its collective breath when the Farnham family announced that their adored husband and father, John, would immediately undergo a marathon 13-hour surgery after finding a cancerous tumour in his mouth. The diagnosis was an especially brutal blow because John was still reeling from the passing of his dear friend, Olivia Newton-John, just weeks earlier, and the sudden death that February of his long-time manager and best mate, Glenn Wheatley, from complications related to COVID-19.

Mercifully, John’s operation was a success. Indeed, he has recovered so well that the Farnham and Wheatley families have now turned their attention to a project dear to all their hearts – finishing the film that Glenn started before his death, John Farnham: Finding the Voice.