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Who’d Dare to be Darius?
Weekend Magazine 26 November 2005
He struggled through Simon Cowell’s sneers to come third on Pop Idol – but Darius Danesh had the last laugh with a £1 million recording contract and two hit albums. Then his gather developed cancer. chrissy Iley hears how that crisis was the making of him.
Darius Danesh was the pop wannabe who wouldn’t give up. Rejected from Popstars at the semi-final stage, he defiantly forecast that he would have a number one single and a hit album, no matter what the judges thought of him. He was called cheesy and mocked for his ponytail and goatee beard, but he was undaunted – on the grounds that ‘my voice is a gift and it would be unfair not to share it with the rest of the world’.
On the follow-up to Popstars, Pop Idol, he faced more ridicule – Simon Cowell said he was corny – but he struggled through to third place behind Gareth Gates and will Young. And then his extraordinary self-belief paid off: his first single, Colourblind, saw off Britney Spears and George Michael to reach the top of the charts, and his albums, Dive In and Live Twice, were big hits.
But, in spite of his ambitions, for a tme he put his career on hld. He spent a few months in Hollywood, twiddling his thumbs – ‘I call it my quarter-life crisis,’ he says – and when his father, Booth, a Glasgow surgeon, was diagnosed with cancer, Darius was there for him, his mother Avril, and his brothers, Aria, 21 and Cyrus, ten.
Now, with Booth’s cancer in remission, Darius is back. He is starring in London’s West End in the musical Chicago, cast in the role of lawyer Billy Flynn, who is normally played by a man in his 50s – Richard Gere took the role in the screen version. At 25, Darius is the youngest Flynn ever.
When I put it to him that this is an attempt to shoehorn himself into an acting career – what else has he been doing in Hollywood all this time? – he animatedly denies it. ‘I started my professional career with the Scottish Opera. As a teenager I performed on stage in many theatrical productions, so I suppose I would say that my career has come full circle. It’s ot my intention to pursue an acting career, though.
After a lot of faltering and soul-searching, he admits, he still couldn’t make up his mind whether he should be living in Hollywood with his girlfriend, actress Natasha Henstridge and her two children, or be at his father’s side in Scotland.
His brother, Aria had left medical school to go into acting, which concerned Darius as there was now no grown-up son at home. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted a pop lifestyle or a career in a different sort of music – nothing made sense. An eloquent songwriter, as well as a gifted singer, he suddenly found that the words wouldn’t flow.
‘I had terrible writer’s block, and if you’re used to writing songs as a release – as I was – and you can’t, it can be devastating.’ Darius had suffered from writer’s block once before, after the huge success of Colourblind. He was sent to Miami to work with Christina Aguilera’s record producer, and took his then girlfriend with him.
‘It had been a rollercoaster year and there I was, in Florida, looking into the future without a cloud on the horizon. I was staying in a luxurious hotel, in the suite Harrison Ford had just checked out of, with the girl of my dreams and my favourite guitar – a Gibson SJ-200 – the one that Elvis used. I sat down to write, and couldn’t get any inspiration.’
When he got writer’s block for the second time, it followed a similar patter, occurring when everything seemed to be going well. He had prayed every day that, against what seemed to be pretty poor odds, his father, to whom he has always been very close, would recover. The cancerous tumour had been the size of an orange and it shrunk to a walnut, then a pea, then it was gone and his father was restored to health.
‘After his remission I went to Los Angeles to be with Natasha, where you can have anything you want. But it was strange because I didn’t want anything. I have always been a very goal-oriented person, very determined. I would set myself a task, do it and then move on to the next one. I had put my career on hold to be with my family and see them through my dad’s illness. So when my dad’s condition improved, I thought I should go back to LA and be with Natasha. The separation had put a strain on our relationship.’
‘When I first got there it was wonderful. Wonderful to be back with her. I’ve seen the way that other men look at her as a great beauty, which she is, but I see inside her; her compassion, her humour. I’d been under a lot of pressure, over my dad, but she taught me how to laugh about it.’
He found it difficult, however, to see any humour in reports that his musical hiatus had led to his being dropped by his record company. After Pop Idol, he had signed a £1 million contract with Mercury, where he found himself working with legendary producer Steve Lillywhite, renowned for his work with Scottish band Travis and rock giants U2. ‘When he left the company, the captain of my ship had gone, so there was no reason for me to be with Mercury, although I am still signed to the record label 19 Recordings. They insisted on changing my fourth single. The song, which I wanted to be a thoughtful ballad, became a mid-tempo tune. I felt in my gut it shouldn’t have happened, but it did. I felt pressurised. That wasn’t why I’d gone with that record company.
‘I could have gone with Simon Cowell but he didn’t want me to write my own songs. Now I felt compromised, bowing to the wills of others against my own creative judgement. I remember reading about David Gray who re-mortgaged his house so he could be his own man as a singer and songwriter. Even if he couldn’t afford to eat, he had freedom. I felt I had sold out and that was distressing. I had tainted something that was sacred
‘My father would have been happier if I’d gone into the medical profession, or law. I felt I’d disappointed him; I was doing this but wasn’t happy. I bagan to feel very guilty.’
‘My dad had nearly died and I wasn’t achieving anything for him. I was back on a treadmill. I felt embarrassed about my career. What had I done? By the time my father was 28 he had invented a kidney machine for premature babies, that is still used. I had embarrassed my parents, particularly on Popstars and then on Pop Idol, where I had allowed myself to be humiliated, and they stood by me. I felt I should go back to Scotland.’
The guilt that Darius felt about letting down his father has a strange resonance. His family come from Persia (now Iran), where Darius’ grandfather was close to the Shah of Iran, before the revolution. ‘My father went from sitting on the lap of the Shah, as a child, and singing him happy birthday and having aspirations to be a classical actor, to being taken out of school at 17 and suddenly told he had to go to another country – Scotland – and be a doctor because that was the only way to get him out of the country with his younger brother, who is disabled. He defined me as a boy and as a man. His is a story of triumph and determination and sacrifice. His is a tale of life and death as opposed to reality TV. I can’t tell you how much my father is my hero. He has always been amazingly positive.’
After his remission from cancer, his father decided to write his memoirs. Darius must have felt the weight of that particularly as it would be a tale of sacrifice when Darius knew he had made none. He had the career his father had been deprived of and it didn’t feel like a triumph. He went back to Scotland hoping for clarity; the brash, oversized ego we saw on Popstars was shrunken. He now seems genuinely humbled and vulnerable.
His dad was, at least, at peace. ‘I remember coming home and looking at him in his study. Through the windw the spring light was shining on his hair, which was still short from the treatment, so he looked like a kind of Buddha, and he said, “I’m going to write a book,” and I said, “Yes, I know.” He said, “Not my memoirs; another book about cancer sufferers. It’s for them and their families to help them on their journey.” He was more focused than before he got cancer, when he was doing too much and dealing with a National Health Service that continued to fall short in many ways. Now he had found something to do with his time that he thought would be most worthwhile and he asked me to help him. I leapt at the chance. I had already been thinking, “What have I done with my fame?” I’d been hiding in LA, glad to be anonymous.
‘One of Natasha’s friends had a terminally ill child, which reminded me of my friend, Matt Algie, a little boy who had terminal cancer. We had a special relationship. He would come to my shows and I would visit him, take silly photos and play games. When he died, I thought, “I’m working in the wrong business; I should be trying to help people.” I thought about changing my path – perhaps working with children, or going back to university, even medical school.
‘So I started helping my father with his book. His style is so precise and scientific. I felt grateful to have a kind of goal again. I told my dad all my thoughts – that I was confused and that I’d let everyone down. He said, in this very significant moment, which seems cheesy but wasn’t, “I am proud of you, whatever you do.” That was the break-through. The writing block lifted and he began scribbling enthusiastically. That’s when he got a call to audition for Chicago.
‘When they heard my real singing voice it impressed them. I am actually a baritone, which is different from my pop voice. It had resonance and maturity so they offered me the role of Billy Flynn.’
He’s in it for the experience rather than the money, he says, although he admits that he’s scared. ‘It’s daunting, but exciting and it’s something I couldn’t reuse to do. Chicago is an amazing satire on an obsession with celebrity, and I find that interesting when you consider how I was introduced to the public, although I haven’t even got a TV now. Chicago satirises a phenomena when people just want to be famous for the sake of being famous.
‘I do love attention, but only when it’s connected to achievement and performing. I understand why people are drawn like a moth to a flame to reality TV, but people don’t understand the impact of such fame.’ He’s been beaten up. ‘I was ridiculed. I had my arm broken in a nightclub because somebody wanted to hear me sing Hit Me Baby One More Time. when I refused he said, “Well I’ll hit you one more time.”’
After Popstars he went back to university. ‘People recognised me and called me Britney boy. They would chase me with a bag of eggs and say, “Well you’ve egg on your face, now.” My girlfriend had to read reports of relationships that never happened.’
It seems as if Darius has learned the hard way and it’s particularly apt that Chicago reflects on the price of fame and the idea that when you get what you want you don’t know what to do with it. He seems genuinely excited to be back performing and, on the opening night, when his parents arrived from Scotland and Natasha flew in from LA, he was conscious of making them proud. Above all, in focusing on his father’s illness, he was able to refocus on his won dreams.