Silverchair lead singer Daniel Johns charged with drink driving car accident on NSW mid coast

Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has been charged with drink driving after he slammed his car into another vehicle on Wednesday night.

The 42-year-old singer allegedly hit a van travelling in the opposite direction with his SUV at 10:30pm last night on the Pacific Highway near North Arm Cove.

The 51-year-old male driver of the van and his 55-year-old female passenger were taken to John Hunter Hospital but have since been released. 

Johns was taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station where he allegedly returned a positive breath test of 0.157 following the collision.

NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that he had been charged with ‘high range’ drink driving and is due to appear in Raymond Terrace Local Court on April 11. 

The Australian music icon on Thursday admitted he’d checked himself into a rehab facility after using alcohol to help deal with his anxiety, depression and PTSD. 

He claims he’d gotten ‘lost’ on the road prior to the accident after suffering from a panic attack. 

Johns had been exiting a service centre on Wednesday night when he smashed into the van heading southbound on the Pacific Highway.

Emergency services attended the scene, with both occupants of the van taken to hospital.

The Silverchair frontman was assessed as the scene but didn’t need further medical attention.

He was then breath tested by officers who found a positive result. He was taken back to the local police station where it’s alleged he returned another result more than three times the legal 0.05 limit.

Police are continuing their investigations into the incident.

The 42-year-old spoke on the matter on Thursday, saying he has been suffering from ‘panic attacks’ and the accident occured after becoming ‘lost’ on the road.

‘As you know, my mental health is a work in progress. I have good days and bad days but it’s something I always have to manage,’ he said.

‘Over the last week I began to experience panic attacks. Last night I got lost while driving and I was in an accident. I am OK, everyone is OK.

‘Alongside my therapy, I’ve been self-medicating with alcohol to deal with my anxiety and depression. I know this is no sustainable or healthy.

‘I have to step back now as I’m self-admitting to a rehabilitation centre and I don’t know how long I’ll be there. Appreciate your love and support as always.’

It comes weeks after Daniel slammed his Silverchair ‘colleagues’ for allegedly not supporting him when he was gravely ill in 2002.

The singer and guitarist revealed in a Facebook post in March that he’d been diagnosed with reactive arthritis, an inflammation of the joints that left him in crippling pain, when the band was launching their fourth album Diorama.

Johns, who also suffered from anxiety and anorexia at the time, claimed he did not receive the help he needed, and felt his band was ‘more of a business than family’.

‘I felt personally responsible for people in our crew who couldn’t work because of my illness,’ he wrote.

‘While I was undergoing exhaustive treatment both here and abroad, I learned very quickly who loved me as a human being and who needed me a performer.

‘I really needed a friend back then, instead I had disgruntled colleagues. When my phone did ring it was usually someone asking if I was ready to tour again.’

He recalled how one member of the Silverchair team even questioned if he was sick at all.

‘Someone in the team even questioned whether I was sick at all and that maybe I just didn’t want to promote the album… Who the f**k wanted Diorama to be more successful than I did?’ he said.

Johns added: ‘I’m not resentful. I understand everyone was under pressure and the band was putting food on many tables but this was too much to put on me. I was 22.’

It’s unclear if Johns was referring to his bandmates Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou when he spoke of his ‘colleagues’ and members of Silverchair’s ‘team’.

Diorama became Silverchair’s fastest-selling album, and went on to be certified triple platinum. 

Johns, who was married to Natalie Imbruglia from 2003 to 2008, previously revealed why he decided to distance himself from the band that catapulted him to fame.

In October last year, he confirmed the group would never reform with him as frontman because he’d struggled for years with the dark side of fame.

Johns – who was just 15 when Silverchair’s first single was released – said on his Spotify podcast Who Is Daniel Johns? he had even thrown out all of his memorabilia, awards and mementos.

‘It’s not that I am not proud of it, but for some reason I don’t want it around,’ he said.

He bluntly added: ‘I wouldn’t even get Silverchair back together for a million dollars with a gun to my head.’

It wasn’t the only time Johns spoke out about his struggles with mental health and the limelight. 

He recently discussed his crippling battle with anorexia in the late ’90s, detailing his harrowing ordeal on his tell-all Spotify podcast. 

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He told interviewer Kaitlyn Sawrey that he would go on three-hour walks to ‘lose weight‘ at the height of his anorexia.    

‘I used to wait until everyone went to bed and then I would take her for walks at 2am for like, three hours, because I was anorexic so I was trying to lose weight,’ Johns said. 

Johns said he became a recluse in his late teenage years, only leaving his bedroom at night to exercise. 

The singer explained that starving himself was the only part of his life he could control as a global teen sensation. 

‘That’s eating disorder 101. I couldn’t control anything but I could control what I ate,’ Johns said. 

Johns recently revealed he had decided to put off the release of his second solo album, FutureNever, sharing the news on Instagram in March. 

Johns said he came ‘bearing bad and good news’, and added that he hoped his fans were ‘not too mad at me’. 

‘The bad news is the release of FutureNever has been delayed by a few weeks until April 22,’ he began.

‘The good news is, it will include a song with Van Dyke Parks called “Emergency Calls Only” and it is one of the most honest songs I’ve ever written.’ 

The album was originally supposed to be released on April 1, and is now set for release on Johns’ birthday.  

Following his high-profile marriage to Imbruglia, Johns was in a three-year relationship with Michelle Leslie. 

The couple split in 2019 after a tumultuous three-year romance. 

Johns recently spoke out about his marriage to Imbruglia, telling The Project in October that he didn’t speak to his ex-wife for 10 years after their divorce in 2008.

He now considers Natalie, 46, a good friend.

‘We’re friends now. But to be honest, we didn’t talk for about 10 years,’ he admitted.

‘When we were married, I was in my 20s. I was incapable of learning how to be responsible. I didn’t know how to use a phone. I was touring all the time.

‘And then, I don’t know, I took it of my own volition and said, “Why are we not talking?” I didn’t really understand and she was like, “I don’t know why we’re not talking either!”‘

Natalie even came on Johns’ podcast recently to discuss their failed romance.

She said: ‘It was really, really hard; it’s a difficult time to talk about and, to be honest, I just remember trying… just trying to get things back on track.

‘And sometimes there isn’t a way through it and that’s where we found ourselves, I’m afraid.’

Natalie admitted: ‘He was the love of my life and I think in time you realise that’s a really special thing and you look back on it fondly, and it doesn’t come around that often that you can both feel that way about each other.

‘It’s not something that is necessarily repeatable in that way. It’s a beautiful thing.’

Source: Daily Mail