Darren Hayes scuttles any chance of a Savage Garden reunion as he claims his former bandmate Daniel Jones was ‘incredibly unkind’

Darren Hayes has ruined any chance of a Savage Garden reunion after saying his former bandmate Daniel Jones was ‘incredibly unlikable’.

Savage Garden, made up of Darren and guitarist Daniel Jones, formed in 1993 and produced a string of number one hits such as To the Moon and Back and Truly Madly Deeply.

However, a rift between the band members caused them to split at the height of their fame in 2001.

Darren, 52, appeared on Nova’s Jase & Lauren show on Thursday to promote his memoir Unloveable and was asked if there was any chance the hit-making duo would ever take the stage together again.

‘You’re not talking anymore, are you? You and Daniel,” co-host Jasion Hawkins asked the star?

“No,” Darren replied bluntly. ‘He was incredibly rude to me and didn’t tell the truth when the band broke up and I was blamed for it.’

Jason pressed the issue and then asked if there was any chance of a reunion even if Daniel got in touch, but Darren wouldn’t hear of it.

“No,” he repeated. “I’ll just stop you there. No.’

Darren further admitted that too much water had passed under the bridge in the ensuing years to allow for an amicable reconciliation.

“No, because he has reached out several times and offered to officially apologize,” he said.

Clearly irritated by the series of questions, Darren added: ‘What he did to me was public. Look, no one wants to hear about that stuff. Fans just want to hear songs.”

Darren appeared on Nova’s Jase & Lauren show on Thursday to promote his memoir Unloveable and was asked if there was any chance the hit-making duo would ever take the stage together again.

“No,” Darren said bluntly. “He was incredibly rude and didn’t tell the truth when the band broke up and I was blamed for it.”

Speaking to Kyle and Jackie O in 2022, Darren referred to a press conference Daniel had held in 2001, in which he announced that he was saddened by the news that Savage Garden was coming to an end, while claiming that Darren had never consulted him before went public.

“He had that press conference where he said, ‘Oh, this is the first I’ve heard of it,’ which was such a stupid thing to say because people thought I had left the band,” he said.

Darren recently revealed to Sarah Grynberg on her A Life of Greatness podcast that he had suffered a major personal betrayal as a result of the split.

“Our falling out was entirely due to him telling the world that the band’s breakup was the first he’d ever heard of it, which wasn’t true,” Darren said.

Clearly irritated by the series of questions, Darren added: ‘What he did to me was public. Look, no one wants to hear about that stuff. Fans just want to hear songs

Savage Garden, made up of Darren and guitarist Daniel Jones, formed in 1993 and produced a string of number one hits such as To the Moon and Back and Truly Madly Deeply

Darren revealed to Sarah that while his former bandmate may have since changed his story, it was a case of too little too late.

‘He never corrected that. He finally did, maybe 10 years later, but it was 10 years too late and I really suffered for it,” he said.

“It was a hugely personal betrayal for me and I talk about it in the book as politely as possible because for a long time I expected him to one day just sit down and tell the truth.”

Darren added that he initially gave Daniel a ‘pass’ on his version of events, but soon grew tired of being blamed for the break-up of the award-winning pop band when it was Daniel who wanted to leave.

“There’s a lot of reasons why he didn’t do that in the very beginning, which I licensed him for at the time,” he said.

‘But three or four years later, when I was still being blamed for the band’s break-up, I realized that I didn’t want to have to keep pretending that I was close to someone who hadn’t been very nice to me, which is the truth.

“That means we don’t have a relationship at all.”

After forming in Brisbane in 1993, Savage Garden released two studio albums, Savage Garden in 1997 and Affirmation in 1999.

Combined, the albums sold 23 million copies worldwide and the group won a record ten ARIA Music Awards in 1997 for their debut album and singles, including To The Moon and Back and Truly Madly Deeply.