Legendary rocker hits back at John Farnham claim their former manager ‘drugged me for years’
A veteran Australian rocker has responded to John Farnham’s shocking claim that his former manager Darryl Sambell secretly drugged him for years.
Peter Tilbrook, who was the guitarist for iconic Australian rock band The Masters Apprentices in the 1960s, has taken to social media.
“Sambell was a brilliant and skilled manager for us, and from what we saw and heard, certainly for Farnham too,” Tilbrook began.
‘I find it very difficult to believe that any other manager at the time could have done more to further Johnny’s incredible career.’
Sambell, who died in 2001 aged 55, managed Farnham’s early career from 1967 to 1976 and helped him launch his debut song Sadie the Cleaning Lady.
The talent agent also managed The Masters around the same time, and Tilbrook claimed his experience with the late manager was nothing like Farnham’s.
“He was a wonderful, caring and resourceful manager,” Tilbrook said.
Farnham recently made shocking claims about Sambell in his new memoir, The Voice Inside.
Veteran Australian rocker Peter Tilbrook (pictured) has hit back at John Farnham’s shocking claim that his former manager Darryl Sambell secretly drugged him for years
The singer alleged that Sambell put substances in his coffee during an early period of his career, when he was in tight control of virtually every aspect of his life.
“He drugged me for years and I had no idea,” Farnham wrote.
Ny Breaking Australia is not suggesting that John Farnham’s claims about being drugged are untrue.
Farnham was first alarmed when he found a half-dissolved pill at the bottom of his coffee cup.
When confronted, Sambell reportedly downplayed the situation, telling him, “That’s just something to help you stay awake.”
Peter Tilbrook, who was the guitarist for iconic Australian rock band The Masters Apprentices in the 1960s, has taken to social media to hit back at Farnham’s claims about his former manager. Farnham and Sambell pictured together in the late 1960s
Tilbrook claimed his own experience with the late manager was nothing like Farnham’s. Pictured in 1987
‘He isolated me from friends and family, tried to keep me away [my wife] Jill, he drugged me, and he made me believe that all my success, everything I had, was because of him.”
He said the manager’s influence was so great that he did not recognize the manipulation at the time.
Sambell “controlled where and when I worked, what I sang, wore and what I ate,” says Farnham.