* - There is a saying that truth is stranger than fiction. - (LAUGHS) And that is definitely true when it comes to my whanau. - There's no reason he needs to be` - I don't care. - He's all over the house. - Everything's bigger... - Stan Walker's here, everyone. - Haere mai ra. - ...louder... - (CROWD CHEERS) - ...and unfiltered. - (BOTH LAUGH LOUDLY) - There's good times,... - Oh... far! - ...there's hard times... - (DRUM BEATS) - ...there's laughs,... - (LAUGHS) - ...and then there's tears. - Oh, far. - But above all, there's huge aroha. - (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - Separated by a pandemic, I'm in Aotearoa, and my whanau, they're in Melbourne. - Yeah, I love you, Stan. (SINGS) 'Love ya.' - But if 2020 has taught us one lesson, it's that whanau is the most important thing we have. And we welcome you to be honorary members of ours. - (ALL LAUGH) - # Things have definitely changed since the last time you saw me. # I've been changing, no more complaining. # It's all on me. # # Things have definitely changed since the last time` Things. # Things have definitely changed since the last time I saw ya. # Ko Stan Roto Walker toku ingoa, but Roto. Do you reckon we could add on a higher harmony? - Roto ` that's my middle name. I've trained myself to tune out Stan. - # Pressure. # - People yell at me, 'Stan!' I hate being yelled at. Sometimes I'm, like, 'What?' (LAUGHS) We gotta try and sound like, some` like a girl's in there. - # Like... Like a... # - Yeah. Yeah, yes. That's the one, my bro. Get it, sis! - (BOTH LAUGH) - Get it, sis. - I've been in the business for 12 years now. I was 18 when I started, and I'm turning 30. My mum does all my tours ` like, she organises all my tours. Everybody thinks she's my manager ` no, she ain't. She ain't she my manager. She do not manage me. - Thank you, Jesus. And hoihoi, Nathan. Thank you, Lord, for this amazing meeting today, Lord God, that you go ahead of it, Father. - That this is a God driven` - (INDISTINCT CHAT) - What's everybody talking for? Kia ora. Ko April toku ingoa. - Can everybody hear me? - April, you need to, um... you're um... nah, you're, you're in and out, April. It's going E-A-A-E-E-E. - You know, I'm planning all the tours. I do everything from venues, accommodation, people on the tour, who's going, you know? Like, travel. Every single bit ` food ` every little bit that comes together. - What just happened? - You keep freezing. - Yeah, and it went off for some reason. - My mum is like me. She's outrageous. She don't listen. She's a know-it-all. - Eh? - (INDISTINCT CHAT) - She and my father, like, straight up, together, they are whakaputa mohio ` know-it-alls. - (STRUMS GUITAR) - You need to learn to sing all the words. No use playing it and you can't sing it. My name's Taiaho Walker, but they` everybody calls me Ross. - My dad, he's the funniest person in our family. Straight up. One of my ex-girlfriends, he goes` I go, 'Oh, Papa, blah, blah, blah,' and he goes, 'Ugh, I could get a spoon and scrape all that make-up off.' And that's him going, 'Hello'. - (CELL PHONE ALARM BLARES, DISTORTED VOICES) - But once you get over that initial offensive, offensive man, everybody loves him the most. - OK, Mum, I need your help. Mum. Mum. ` Sorry? - Mum. Mum. - My sister. My sister's the best. Bruuh. Bruuh! - What do you want? - Look. It's` Look at all that. - I love my sister so much. I got all the time in the world for my sister. She lives in Melbourne with my mum and dad. Her and my mum are really tight. They argue all the time, but they're really tight. Does she contribute to the whare? Probably not. - That's all I wanted. I'm Mary-Grace. I'm 19. I'm the baby of the family, only girl, so I'm pretty spoilt. I'm just standing up... trying to start up my own business with beauty therapy and eyelash extensions and stuff like that. And I wanna move this as well. - No, you can't. - At least to the side, so I can put everything` - Oh, over here? - Yeah. - Oh yeah. - And those need to go. - Oh yeah. What need to go? - No. They don't need to go. - That needs to go. There's no reason he needs to be` - No, it doesn't. I don't care. - He's all over the house! - Whoop-de-de. - We're in the process of setting up my mum's office. - Yoo-hoo! - Oh, hey! Auntie Leonie! - Aunty Leonie! - (LAUGHS) ` Gee, youse are really happy to see me. (LAUGHS). - Obvs. Kia ora. - I'm smelling my fingers: they stink! ` Ew, yuck! No! Get stuffed. - Here, have a smell? Nah, honest! - My aunties came in and they saved the day for me. - How you been? - Oh, nah! - My husband is Ross's brother, so there's only two of them in the family. There's Ross and my husband, Stan, who Stan's named after, which gave us that extra connection with them. So I think I've got quite an important role to the kids here, like, all the kids here. Eyelash business ` when did this start? - Yeah, oh, a couple weeks ago. I wanted to start it because` Ooh. - We're gonna use this massage table. - Come on, and you can't even put up a seat. - Oh, come on, then, expert. - (LAUGHS) - All my family, all the females, are very control` control freaks. My auntie Honey, she's really into, like, interior design and stuff like that. - The whole thing needs to go. Your whole office needs to move out of here. ` Oh yeah. Where's it gonna go? - Up in your bedroom. - Oh no. - It's just gotta go. - No. - Nah, it has to go out. - It's not going in my bedroom. - Baby, it needs to go. - I don't care. - If you want her to be successful, - you need to move all that. But you can just move it out for now. - Move it out, cos you can't` - Where? - Just move it out! - I love my family, but it's so dysfunctional. (LAUGHS) Like, far, man. We look not normal. - Impossible ` My Story. Stan Walker. Of course, Stan's on the cover. - Hey, have you got your reading glasses? - Eh, Leonie. - Yeah? - Yeah, we're all good here (!) Yeah. - Yeah. - We're just doing fine. - Thank you. - You just read that book, yeah, you take your time (!) - Nah, I didn't come here to work. - You stay there. You take your time. - Come in. - Sorry, Mary-Grace. I love you, but it's Saturday. I've always been proud of Stan, always. From even when he was a baby, I've always loved Stan. Black Box. I am a seed born... Hey, what chapter am I in?! * - Oh, my bags. Far. - Oh, don't worry ` I'll get them. - (BOTH CHUCKLE) - Sorry. - No, don't worry. - I've always thought about writing a book. I knew, one day, I was gonna do it, I just didn't know it was gonna happen so soon. I think for the last, like, seven years, I've been approached by different companies, you know, to do a book on my life, and I just never felt ready. I was like, nah, I'm all good. But I thought, this time, 'Yeah.' they asked me, and I was, like, 'Yo, I'm ready to go.' - Cool, come on through. - Nau mai, hoki mai ano. It's 8.13. You're with Breakfast. Now, most of us will already be familiar with our next guest. He's one of Aotearoa's biggest performing artists. And now he's here to talk about his new book, Impossible, an incredibly raw, brave story he's sharing for the very first time. - I think my intentions with the book is to see people like me, similar situation, same situation, people who are locked up in cells in their brain, to be set free. - (INDISTINCT CHAT) - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shit, that was good, wasn't it? It was fantastic. In New Zealand, we're fairly one dimensional in our attitude toward successful people, and to see successful people telling the stories of what they have confronted and overcome is really meaningful. And I do think it's enabling for other people who are going through the same shit to think, 'Actually, there's something, you know, 'potentially really wonderful on the other side of this.' - 300 photos, and there's no picture of me, but I'm in the text. I believe I'm close to Stan because I feel like I took over part of mothering him. He felt like he could come to me,... cos he trusted me. Now, the book. You didn't get pictures of me. - (LAUGHS) Oh yeah! - Nah! - No, I've got` I sent 300 pictures, and those are the ones they chose. - And how many were of me? - (STAN AND APRIL LAUGH) - No! This is a true question. - Next time we see the book people, you hit them up, because I had` - There's no next time, Stan. You could have put one picture of me in there! - I sent photos of all of us! She's devastated that she's not in the book. But the thing is, I was, like, 'Auntie, like, 'I literally talk about you and Uncle Stan so much in the book, 'how you fullas were like my saviours, 'and she's, like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Like, I just wanna see a picture.' (LAUGHS) - All those years of looking after you, you little brat. - (APRIL AND STAN LAUGH) - No, I will not be forgiven, so I'm just gonna have to do something else that's gonna take her mind off it, to go, 'Oh, Stannie. Oh, I love you, my nephew, my favourite nephew.' I don't know what that is yet, but I'll find something. (CHUCKLES) - It's Niu FM, the beat of the Pacific. - Good morning. - We got Stan Walker in the building. - Morena, morena. - Kia ora, welcome back. The bro Stan Walker's here, everyone. - Haere mai ra. - (LAUGHS) So, today is the start of my book promo. This is gonna be full on. I already can feel it in my spirit that I'm tired. Usually it's interviews about singing, the next single, blah, blah, blah, you know, and it does not require as much effort or energy or life. (LAUGHS) This is just straight, like, here's my whole life. But any time I can get an interview with any of my mates, any of my mates, it's mean as. - Welcome to my kava bar. - Ooh! - I've read the book. - So what was chapter two? - (BOTH LAUGH) - What chapter was your favourite? - I really enjoyed the part where I closed it. - (BOTH LAUGH) - Stan and I actually used to sing together. I was his backup singer back in, like, 2010. Oh my God. So, I still remember we travelled down to shoot images for the book. - Oh, for the book! Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And you showed me the photo of you and Lou. And then that's when the ball dropped that - old flames never die out. - Straight up. - I've been with Stan through pretty much all of his relationships, and I've seen and met all his girlfriends, come and go. But obviously, he's now come to a point in his life where he's done a full circle with Lou. - I told her that I was still in love her, and I didn't realise I was, because I just had suppressed everything, because I felt like that was over. It was gone, gone. Done, done. And I told her ` I couldn't sleep for three days, three whole days. It was like I was on drugs. - Lou, Lou, Lou. My darling, my love. We're little weirdos. Like, honest to God, like, we're actually little weirdos. And I love it cos I haven't been able to be like that since I was with her the last time. (RECITES KARAKIA) - Haumi e, hui e. - Taiki e. - Taiki e. - Got the love of my life here. Just getting a young moko together. Be marked for the rest of our lives. - So this one here would be Lou, you know, and the family system that supports her. And then the two gaps` - Yeah. - ...they're a protective, sort of, barrier. - Oh yeah. - ...and then everything that supports that. - So you better not leave me. Nah! - (LAUGHS) - Might have to have a` just a scribble-in support system. Nah! - (BOTH GIGGLE) - Lou Tyson toku ingoa. Stan and I ` together for five years from the age of 22. Yeah, we were both 22 at the time. Five years, three years apart, a few entanglements, and we're back together. (LAUGHS) - Ooh, that stings. That stung. That was a bit stingy. - (NEEDLE BUZZES) - That must've been the three years of being apart. - I can feel it. - (LAUGHS) - We had a ugly split. It was pretty ugly. (LAUGHS) It was terrible. I was dramatic. (LAUGHS) I was dramatic as hell. (LAUGHS) So having her back is just the most incredible thing. - (NEEDLE BUZZES) - Watching it get done, it was, like, wow, it's sentimental. It's not just, uh, any sort of tattoo on his tinana; it's quite a significant one. - Come and get your fingers done. - Can I come get my fingers done? I'll get one. - Let's go. - Can I? - Yo. - OK. - Are you sure? - Yeah. - Far. Cool! - (LAUGHS) - (NEEDLE BUZZES) - Kia ora. - Kua oti. - Yo. Let's go. - Cute. Nah. - Kia ora. - (BOTH LAUGH) - It's just so mean having her back in my life and me being back in her life, and it's like time just... was nothing. Like, it was, like, us being apart was, like, we never, ever were apart. (BIRDS SQUAWKING, BONGO DRUMMING) Excuse me, where am I? You're lost in the procrastination place. Yeah, right. That makes sense. MAN: Slap yourself out of it. Whoo! * - # Kia ora, e te whanau. # If you're not doing anything, # tonight at 7pm, # we're going live on Spark. # So go to far` Oi, far! The far! I'm gonna delete that. (LAUGHS) The far! We're at Roundhead Studios. It's Neil Finn, he's my bro. He's the brother. It's his studio, and he's, like, oh, bro, just come over. I was like, yeah, whatevs. Whatevs, you know? OK, Neil. Neilie. It's gangsta. Like, this is such a beautiful studio. We're gonna be performing and sharing stuff from the book. So tune in live, 7pm New Zealand Time. Singing is just a release of any and every emotion that I have. It's a calming thing. It's an emotional thing. It's a, like, love thing. It's a pain thing. I've written about so many different things. - (PIANO PLAYS) - # I tipu mai au I te wharua # e. # Every part is a part of me. Every song, every lyric is a part of me. Every note is a part of me. And I try and make sure that when I'm singing, that I'm trying to touch people's souls. - ALL: # Tua. # Tua. - # Do-do-be-do-bo. # - Oh yeah. - Are you sure? Is it one? Oh, man. My backup singers are on, honest to God. You've got Ani, she's incredible. And you've got her husband, Lilo, the man. And Nate, the man. Honest to God, they're just incredible, and them by themselves, away from singing backup for me, oh ` whoa. - # I le lalolagi. - ALL: # E o-mai o-mai, # E fa-u le pa i lo tava. # - What am I doing? What am I doing again? So I'll go English, Samoan, Maori, and then... - (INDISTINCT CHAT) - Oh, no. It goes` We'll go Samoan, Maori, English. We're still learning some of the songs so we can, like, practice. We do this all the time and try to sort out our harmonies. It's kind of like, I always think of it like Dreamgirls. Like, you got Eddie Murphy on the piano, and he's, like, doing the thing. And then one of the singers comes over, adds in a harmony. One comes, adds another harmony, and suddenly, the song just turns into a song, and then you're there. - (AUDIENCE CHEERS) - # We can be bigger. # Yeah, yeah, yeah. # Oh, bigger. # Say, you gotta be - # bigger. - # Bigger. - # Yeah. - # Bigger. - # Ooh. My song Bigger is about everything of where I come from; who I was to where I am now and to hand it on to the next generation. - # I know it ain't easy, # but... # Bigger. - # We can be bigger, # bigger than this. Listen to that good song beating in your chest. # Don't be scared to stray too far from the river. # You can be bigger, you can be bigger. - # Tiro ki... - # ...tua, tua ra e. # Whakarongo ki nga wai o Roto e. # Kei wehi i te wehenga i to awa, # tiro ki tua, - # tiro ki... - BOTH: # ...tua, tua. # - (AUDIENCE CHEERS) - (PIANO PLAYS GLISSANDO) - (LAUGHS) - Everybody, that's my goddaughter, my niece, Ibanez. I've got my goddaughter, Ibie, on the song, and it makes the song ` the whole thing. That's what it's all about. It's about her. - 15, eh? - (GRUNTS) - Did you do 15? I dunno; you're a blinging cheat. - Yes, I did. - You cheat all the time. - No, I did. - It's not about doing it quick. Just do it properly. - The fact that I'm over here and I'm not there with them, the distance and not being able to just, go, just like that, like how I used to ` um,... that's been hard. And I know that it's been hard for my parents more so. - You gotta get past the first one. Go, Trey. - (GRUNTS, SIGHS) - You got past. Come back now. - It's been hard, considering what my dad's been going through. The mokos have been his, like, saving grace. I mean, they annoy him, hard out. Like, when they're too loud, he's like, nah, send them home. But he loves picking them up and doing activities. He likes doing stuff with them. - Yeah, do it now. Go, go! (LAUGHS) - During this time when my dad's been sick, he's, like, still playing tag and still` he's doing chemo and everything like that, and doing stuff he shouldn't be. - (GRUNTS, LAUGHS) I had a` Well, I've got all cancer right throughout my spine, right down to my pelvis. So I'd seen on the scans, all the dark parts, all the cancer. - (POIGNANT MUSIC) - The doctor's looking at him, had his arms folded. He goes, 'Oh my God. If I had seen you walking down the street, I would never think you had cancer. 'What are you doing here? You should be in the hospital, you know, on morphine, dying.' - It's just, kind of, one of those unfortunate things that` I'm saying this in a very, like, oh, it's unfortunate, but it is. It sucks. It sucks hard out, but... I don't know ` I just... you just don't got time for, like,... sadness. Like, we've had enough sadness in our family, like, throughout the whole years. It is sad, when I think about it. Don't get me wrong ` I've definitely had my moments. I'm, like, holy shit ` like, this is... again? I feel like this is your... like, if you were this young, you'd be this. It's called WAP. It's my 30th birthday party. - (INDISTINCT CHAT) - Stannie! - It's gonna come out anyway, so, um... - Taking him in for his third chemo session. - I don't think I could tell you to not do things, you know? Like, that's just not, you know ` it's just not your nature.