According to Daniel Johns: “We should thank our lucky stars Kanye West who has raised “a lot of important issues” about mental health. Johns has had a difficult relationship with the media and is notoriously averse to interviews. When he was last in the spotlight, Andrew Denton interrogated him live on television.
Johns has talked about his admiration for Kanye West and claimed that during a particularly trying time in his adult life, he felt a connection with the contentious rap icon.
In the second episode of Daniel Johns’ new documentary series, Inside The Mind Of Daniel Johns, host Megan Holiday brought up Silverchair’s performance at the 2008 Lollapalooza festival, which included Kanye West as the headlining act. Johns expressed disbelief upon learning that West cited Silverchair as an influence: “I still don’t believe it, even though people have shown me,” he stated with an emphasis on his smile. My love for Kanye West
The rapper’s ideas on mental health are something with which Johns can identify, he continued, noting that “there is a lot of stuff [West] talks about.” “I know this could be contentious, but I think he makes a lot of fair concerns, especially surrounding mental illness,” he concluded.
He said something along the lines of, “Sometimes people handle mental health in a way that would be comparable to forcing an Olympic sprinter with a broken ankle to run.” And he stated it just as I was experiencing that. I’m at a loss for what culturally significant artists there are today. He’s extraordinary, therefore we should consider ourselves fortunate.”