“Would you like to hear the long and intriguing story of Marcia Hines?” she asks, as we sit down for a coffee and delve into her illustrious career as a musician, performer, and TV personality. I inquire about how it all began.
The longer version entails her fascination with the choir at her godmother’s Baptist church, her brief but despised attendance at a music school, and the influence of family friend Donna Summer, who inspired her to pursue performing. However, the condensed version goes like this: in 1970, Hines landed a role in Hair, the iconic anti-Vietnam war musical that was taking the world by storm. A friend recommended her when the producers mentioned they were searching for a “rough diamond.” Hines, who had always dreamt of a singing career but had never pursued it professionally, auditioned for the role at just 16 years old. She was living in her hometown, Boston, with her West Indian-born mother and brother, but this production of Hair was happening in Sydney.
Hines confesses, “I didn’t even know where Australia was”…initially, she thought she was headed for Austria. However, within two weeks, she found herself on a plane to Sydney. The plan was for a six-month engagement, but little did she know that 53 years later, she would still be there.
“It doesn’t quite feel like 50 years,” she tells me. Hines, about to reach her 70th birthday, has achieved a tremendous amount in those five decades. She has released 22 albums, selling 2.6 million copies, and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2009, she was honored with the Order of Australia. Hines made history as the first Australian female artist to have a platinum-selling album and the first female artist with seven consecutive Top 20 album releases. Additionally, she served as a judge on the reality TV phenomenon, Australian Idol, for seven years.
With four marriages under her belt, Hines has become a legendary figure, even claiming a distant connection to Grace Jones and Colin Powell. Yet, she insists that she’s far from finished, with plans for a 50-year anniversary album release and corresponding tour. It brings her great joy to still be relevant after all these years.
Throughout our conversation, Hines exudes the presence of someone who has lived an extraordinary life. She emanates warmth and charm, offering motherly advice (cautioning against drinking soy milk in coffee for calcium intake) and words of wisdom (making one’s bed being the most important aspect of her life).
Hines has a habit of sharing sage observations, allowing them to linger in the air before continuing, all the while maintaining intense eye contact. She delights in happy tangents at times, but can be quite witty, refusing to share incredible dinner party stories from her globetrotting adventures, stating, “Yeah, but…would I tell you? No.”
Reflecting on her early days performing in Hair, Hines remembers them with great fondness. She travelled alone to Australia, leaving her family behind, and arrived in the vibrant streets of Kings Cross, immersed in a community of artists, bohemians, and hippies. She spent her time with her fellow American actors involved in the musical, as well as the local cast that included an actor named John Waters, whom she had an intense crush on. She admits, “I couldn’t even speak to him!” Laughing heartily, she reminisces about his beautiful face and captivating hazel eyes. Despite being underage, Hines fearlessly participated in Hair’s nude scene, which she assures me was tasteful and brief, adding, “If you blinked, girlfriend, you missed it.”
Even as the production began, Hines received life-changing news – she was six months pregnant. She continued working right until the night she was induced, and only two weeks after giving birth to her daughter Deni, she was back on stage. As a young single mother, Hines managed with the help of a nanny, stating matter-of-factly, “I had money, and with money, you can do lots of stuff.” The real challenge came later during her daughter’s teenage years. She chuckles, saying, “There were many nights I wanted to sneak up there with the pillow and smother her. Teenagers, man!” However, she proudly declares that motherhood is her greatest accomplishment and deeply loves her daughter, who is also a singer. Nonetheless, she advises against teen pregnancy, acknowledging that she did what needed to be done and wouldn’t be the person she is today if she hadn’t.
After Hair, a three-and-a-half-year stint as Mary Magdalene in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar followed, marking the beginning of Hines’ career as a recording artist. Her journey began with her cover of James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”, which she recorded in a small Sydney studio. Soon after, she embarked on a month-long tour in Russia with the Daly-Wilson Big Band, who had asked her to be their singer. She vividly recalls a patchy international call from her manager with exciting news – her single was on the charts. She confesses, “I said, who bought it? I had no idea. I wasn’t here for all the hype that happened.”
Even to this day, Hines remains with her manager, Peter Rix, who guided her through the many gold and platinum records that followed, including her biggest hit, 1977’s “You”, and 1981’s “Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees”, which became a top 10 hit in Australia and Europe. Despite facing challenging times such as a substantial legal dispute that resulted in a five-year hiatus due to her former label, Wizard Records, blocking her from recording, Hines credits her enduring success in the music industry to her “50-50” partnership with Rix. She emphasizes the importance of having a supportive team around her, people who aren’t easily impressed and know how to say “no.” Hines proudly asserts, “And I do know what ‘no’ means.” Additionally, she believes that having a “big, burly, ugly” manager protected her during the early years as a young woman in the music industry.
In 2003, Hines embarked on a venture that would introduce her to a new generation – Australian Idol. On the judging panel, she played the role of the “nice one,” situated between the thorny personalities of Mark Holden and Ian “Dicko” Dickson. Giving negative feedback to contestants proved challenging for Hines, and she admits, “Especially the delusional ones…they’d get so angry with you. They really couldn’t sing, and then they’d look at me and say, ‘What would you know?’ And I’d say, ‘Nothing.'” She recalls a moment when both Dicko and Holden critiqued the weight and appearance of then-21-year-old contestant Paulini Curuenavuli on live television. However, Hines refused to join their chorus and instead confronted Holden on air. She reveals, “What you didn’t see is when the cameras went off, I said, ‘What the hell are you guys thinking? You’ve got daughters! You can’t say that to a girl.’ You can say, ‘I don’t like the dress,’ but don’t say, ‘You’re too fat for the dress.'”
Hines continued judging on Australian Idol until 2009. She insists that her trademark on-screen niceness wasn’t an act, asserting, “They hired me, didn’t they? Just let me be me.”
Sydney musician Brendan Maclean, who performed over 300 shows with Hines in Velvet Rewired,…
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