Take 5 with Peter Garrett

Peter Garrett has been an unstoppable force of Australian music for decades.

As the iconic frontman of Midnight Oil, a grassroots activist, and a former Federal Parliamentarian, he's spent a lifetime driving change: from the pubs of Sydney to the remote outback communities that reshaped the band's sound, from the floor of Parliament to the world's biggest stages. He's never stopped pushing.

But beneath the towering public persona lies something unexpected. When Zan Rowe gave him the theme "Songs of Change," Peter Garrett revealed a softer, surprisingly open side: a man moved to tears by music, still searching for love and meaning, and still driven by hope in a world that often feels hopeless.

He traces it all back to a suburban childhood where his parents spun protest records on a gramophone, through the tragic, sudden loss of both parents as a young man, to the formation of Midnight Oil with Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie, a partnership that would define Australian rock for half a century. He recalls the 1986 Blackfella Whitefella tour through remote Indigenous communities with Warumpi Band as the experience that moved him more deeply than playing to 50,000 people in Rio or New York. "Nothing affected me like actually being in that environment," he says. "We were visitors, and we were treated with great generosity."

He speaks with raw emotion about the loss of Rob Hirst, his drummer, his sparring partner, his family, and the alchemy that made Midnight Oil undeniable. "If you're gonna die on a hill, die on a hill that's got meaning." On the future of the band without Rob, he's candid but open: "The doors are open. But it may not happen at all."

He reflects on his years in federal parliament, the criticism he faced for wearing a suit, and the idea of service that drove him to enter politics in the first place. He connects Bruce Springsteen's live performance of "War" in the Trump era to Australia's own opportunity to be "a different kind of modern nation." And he closes with Sarah Blasko's "Without," landing on a truth that ties everything together: "You can only be a hopeful person if you actually understand what love is."

This episode was filmed for the new season of Take 5 with Zan Rowe on ABC TV and ABC iview. Filmed at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney, Peter Garrett came ready to share, and what unfolded was a conversation about music, loss, service, and love that goes far beyond the public persona. As Peter himself says, the two constants in his life have been music and change. This is the envelope within which he writes all his letters.

Peter Garrett's song choices:

Peter, Paul & Mary - 'Go Tell It On The Mountain'

Warumpi Band - 'From The Bush'

DOBBY - 'Dirrpi Yuin Patjulinya'

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - 'War' (live)