Speaker 1: A small show, the Smallsy Show.
Speaker 2: Hey, what's up? This is Nicky Webster. You're listening to
Speaker 2: small Zy.
Speaker 1: Now I'm kiss on the show.
Speaker 3: Absolute Australian icon. In fact, sticker in a museum. She's
Speaker 3: that much of an icon.
Speaker 1: Nicky Webster's here, everybody, Thank you?
Speaker 2: What an intro?
Speaker 3: Has anyone ever told you that we should stick you
Speaker 3: in a museum before?
Speaker 2: Is that because I'm old?
Speaker 1: Or is that no?
Speaker 3: Just I think you're just a part of Australian icon
Speaker 3: culture now No, maybe like.
Speaker 2: A wax version of me would be pretty cool.
Speaker 3: A Madam two Swords Nicky Webster would be great. Hey, well,
Speaker 3: welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I after all of these years, is the first time
Speaker 3: we've ever met. I know, and look and now I
Speaker 3: can't believe that the banger, that honestly absolute banger twenty
Speaker 3: five years old? Isn't that?
Speaker 4: It's incredible to believe that this song has lived on
Speaker 4: through the generations.
Speaker 1: And how old were you when you did this?
Speaker 4: It was just after the Olympics, so I was about
Speaker 4: fourteen fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the robot there was the robot's name.
Speaker 2: DJ did it or Jimmy did It?
Speaker 3: Was the best that was from the video clip For
Speaker 3: people who don't remember.
Speaker 2: It's right.
Speaker 4: I got to create what I you know, this really
Speaker 4: cute kind of boyfriend style DJ.
Speaker 2: It was very cute.
Speaker 1: Was that your idea?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I got to be a part of creating him
Speaker 2: and designing him. It was pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Unless you said so, I'm not talking over you here,
Speaker 1: will It was a time.
Speaker 2: It was a good song.
Speaker 4: I always knew it was going to be a good song,
Speaker 4: So I'm just glad it's lived on for.
Speaker 2: This many years.
Speaker 3: Well, congratulations on celebrating twenty five years anniversary of the song.
Speaker 1: Did you write this or did you work with people
Speaker 1: that wrote it for you?
Speaker 4: No, I just heard it as a demo and I
Speaker 4: said to my record label, I want that like I
Speaker 4: want this song.
Speaker 1: Was it Australian writers or.
Speaker 2: Was in his international writers?
Speaker 4: Jeff Frans who loves me very much because he's still
Speaker 4: getting royalty checks.
Speaker 3: For Wow, for my song, that song would be making money. Still,
Speaker 3: did it get off a to anybody else, because you
Speaker 3: hear a lot of the time songs like that get
Speaker 3: pitched around or people pass on it. Had anyone else
Speaker 3: been off of that song before you got off of it?
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Aaron Carter actually had the song on hold because he
Speaker 4: had done I Want Candy and then he wanted.
Speaker 1: Strawberry hisses that would have worked for Aaron Patt.
Speaker 2: So I had to fight pretty hard to say.
Speaker 1: No my song and yeah, you went to war with
Speaker 1: Aaron Carter?
Speaker 2: I did? I did?
Speaker 1: Did you ever meet him?
Speaker 2: I absolutely did.
Speaker 4: I got set up on a pizza date once with
Speaker 4: him as well, so not long after that.
Speaker 3: Seems a little uncomfortable now, doesn't Well, congratulations, I mean
Speaker 3: where do we even start? What have you been doing
Speaker 3: for the last twenty five years?
Speaker 2: What have I been doing?
Speaker 4: I've been I've run a performing arts studio for kids,
Speaker 4: so like the new talent of up and coming talent,
Speaker 4: which is pretty cool. So I get to work with
Speaker 4: up and coming stars of today every day, which is
Speaker 4: really inspiring.
Speaker 3: Would you are you when you work with up and
Speaker 3: coming stars and you encourage the kids to be stars?
Speaker 3: Are you like a Chris Jenner encourager or Abby Lee
Speaker 3: Miller dance Mum's encourager.
Speaker 4: I would say I'm kind of in the middle, like
Speaker 4: I'm more Chris Jenner as in, like.
Speaker 2: You've got to think about the whole picture.
Speaker 4: I got to be the triple threat, and you've got to,
Speaker 4: you know, think about your marketing and how to put
Speaker 4: yourself out there and the hard work.
Speaker 2: I think. But yeah, I think I'm more like that.
Speaker 1: Are you a little unhinged like Abby Lee Miller too?
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm a little bit of a perfectionist most of
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: To do just scream at the kids, No.
Speaker 2: You can't do that in twenty twenty six, No you can't.
Speaker 3: I think the kids of today can I just say,
Speaker 3: I'd probably do it to us more to say, I'm
Speaker 3: going to say, I reckon. The kids of today are
Speaker 3: missing out on the whole being screamed at like nothing.
Speaker 1: That's character fine.
Speaker 2: I turned out me too.
Speaker 3: It's really character building being screamed at by an adult,
Speaker 3: you know, like you really know you've done something wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah. However, I think the other way is pretty cool too.
Speaker 4: You get to come into their own a little bit
Speaker 4: more and their voice a little earlier and not afraid
Speaker 4: to say no.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool. Oh really?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So how are you celebrating twenty five years?
Speaker 4: We are actually doing some really exciting things, which is
Speaker 4: really cool. We are selling some merch to celebrate twenty
Speaker 4: five years.
Speaker 2: I've got the T shirt on today.
Speaker 3: I love that. It's not cute little it's fourteen year
Speaker 3: old you it is.
Speaker 2: I mean, I wish I still look that young. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we've got a T shirt which.
Speaker 3: I have to say, sorry, you look just almost identical
Speaker 3: to what you did twenty five years Obviously you're like
Speaker 3: you're a mature woman now, but like everything is the
Speaker 3: same for people, so they know the hair is the
Speaker 3: same length, you're still petite, like you know, it is
Speaker 3: wild how much people don't change change.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you've got the merch.
Speaker 2: Got the merch.
Speaker 4: We're going to release a seven inches well of Strawbery
Speaker 4: Kisses nyl, yeah, which is really cool. So you can
Speaker 4: you can pre order all that stuff now. And it's
Speaker 4: just about I guess, reflecting back on where you were
Speaker 4: in the year, you know, in the tooth and how
Speaker 4: much fun you had with the song and just having
Speaker 4: a little bit of fun, not taking it too seriously
Speaker 4: and just a really good kind of vibe and spirit
Speaker 4: and Strawby Kisses living on.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's so great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now take me back twenty five years ago. The
Speaker 3: song comes out, it goes gangbusters. Everyone is like, is
Speaker 3: this fair to say you were equal parts loved but
Speaker 3: then also equal parts loathed, Like some people loved you
Speaker 3: and then some other people were like, get this chick
Speaker 3: off of my TV one hundred.
Speaker 2: That was solutely How did.
Speaker 1: You handle that as a fourteen year old?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was tough, I think because I had come
Speaker 4: from doing the Olympics, which was obviously you know, I
Speaker 4: was recognized on a worldwide scale as representing my country,
Speaker 4: and I was a very proud Aussie and I never
Speaker 4: wanted to leave Australia as an artist because you know,
Speaker 4: I'm an Aussie girl at heart, and so that was
Speaker 4: really hard to take. I think that I thought that
Speaker 4: some people in my country turned against me, and I
Speaker 4: think I wasn't quite sure what I had done wrong.
Speaker 1: But how do you even process that as a fourteen
Speaker 1: year old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm glad there was no Instagram and direct messaging
Speaker 4: or anything like that, because I think it would have
Speaker 4: been a lot darker.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think it's just my family being very grounded and
Speaker 4: keeping me very grounded.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was tough. However, I think it made
Speaker 2: me a.
Speaker 4: Little bit more resilient in terms of what I was
Speaker 4: going to face as an adult, and also grateful for
Speaker 4: the opportunities I had and the connections and the people
Speaker 4: that I met along the way, the people that I
Speaker 4: needed to respect me did, and the people that to
Speaker 4: see me saw me, and the others were just noise.
Speaker 1: Is how There's a lot of noise, right, There's a
Speaker 1: lot of noise.
Speaker 3: Is there is there something that you like stands out
Speaker 3: as like a crazy like moment? I mean you talked
Speaker 3: about that Aaron Carter pizza party. Is there something that
Speaker 3: you know from that time that you look back on
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, did you fly somewhere, did you
Speaker 3: meet someone where you're doing like corporates, or just is
Speaker 3: there something that stands out that you just like that
Speaker 3: was just the wildest time of my life.
Speaker 4: I think the whole thing I was like traveling around
Speaker 4: the world. I was touring, I was you know, singing
Speaker 4: at different corporate events. I got to do like aerobatics
Speaker 4: in a plane once and you know fly they shut
Speaker 4: the engine off and fly down to the ground and
Speaker 4: then fly back up singing strawberry kisses.
Speaker 2: Just crazy stuff I was doing and able to do
Speaker 2: as a young kid.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and just travel the world with my backup dancers
Speaker 4: who were my best friends from you know, school, and
Speaker 4: just live in life thinking this is the way.
Speaker 1: How great is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Did you finish school?
Speaker 2: I did so?
Speaker 1: So your fourteen?
Speaker 3: So hang on, so let's just go back you you
Speaker 3: do the Olympics right then they string you up in
Speaker 3: the air and everyone remembers that what happened after that
Speaker 3: because obviously you were like everyone was talking about that
Speaker 3: Aussie girl that everyone was flicking around that they were
Speaker 3: flicking around the opening ceremony.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Then it was you know, getting presented with opportunities and
Speaker 4: there was no written book on how to do it
Speaker 4: or what to do or the paths to follow. We
Speaker 4: were all just shooting blind, going okay, let's take a
Speaker 4: record contract, let's see where that leads us, and let's
Speaker 4: do a tour and let's you know, go to school
Speaker 4: in the in the term and then tour in the holidays.
Speaker 1: And is that how it went down?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Let's make a clothing brand and be the biggest
Speaker 4: girl's clothing brand, you know in came up stores for years,
Speaker 4: like let's design clothes, let's design bedding, Like it was
Speaker 4: just it was crazy. I just kept saying yes. I
Speaker 4: was like, sure, yeah, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 1: How exciting is that?
Speaker 3: It's really cool life memories I can imagine, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think the best thing was I was always allowed
Speaker 4: to sit at the table of these meetings. No one
Speaker 4: ever kept me out and thought I was young. They
Speaker 4: just were like, yeah, come in and be a part
Speaker 4: of it.
Speaker 3: So that because I would have I would have thought
Speaker 3: at the time, I mean, I was only a kid too,
Speaker 3: But like I would have thought at the time, there
Speaker 3: would have been people thinking, oh, there's adults manipulating her here,
Speaker 3: like she's not at the table, she's just being wheeled out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4: But I think when they saw me in the meetings,
Speaker 4: they realized that it was me driving it, and yeah,
Speaker 4: I think I was just blessed to have, you know,
Speaker 4: some good support. I had Burton Newton, I had Kylie
Speaker 4: Minogue who were always kind of I could call or
Speaker 4: ring and ask for advice.
Speaker 2: So I had a lot of people.
Speaker 1: You had Burton Newton, yeah, and Kylie Minau.
Speaker 3: I'm not name dropping, just like so they just they
Speaker 3: reached out to you and said, hey, if you've ever
Speaker 3: got a question or just.
Speaker 4: Well, I'd worked with Kylie and the closing ceremony, and
Speaker 4: we became really close.
Speaker 2: And then Bert and I had worked.
Speaker 4: With in musical theater since I was, you know, five
Speaker 4: years old, so we had developed this relationship and support
Speaker 4: and he would just reach out and I'd ask questions
Speaker 4: and bounce ideas off them. So really good, I guess
Speaker 4: industry knowledge and just you know, really sound support from
Speaker 4: a young girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm pretty's really lovely.
Speaker 3: Now tell me when you auditioned for that opening ceremony,
Speaker 3: you would have been up against other girls.
Speaker 2: Yeah, plenty.
Speaker 1: Where are they now? The barefoot and pregnant let's look
Speaker 1: at them to ring it, you know that hate you.
Speaker 1: They would like Strawberry kids. They would have been.
Speaker 3: They would still be telling stories about that male Nikki
Speaker 3: Webster who stole my job.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was at compared to the reality show. They
Speaker 4: would have made one of the hero girl.
Speaker 3: You know how it was it super competitive to get
Speaker 3: that opening ceremony.
Speaker 2: Hugely competitive.
Speaker 4: I think every girl in Australia was going for this
Speaker 4: role that no one really knew what it was because
Speaker 4: it was so undercover and so secretive. But yeah, one
Speaker 4: hundred percent. It was months and months of auditions and
Speaker 4: it was a very cupbroat process.
Speaker 1: Now, where can we get the merch So you can.
Speaker 4: Get it on my Instagram which is Nikki Webster Official.
Speaker 4: There's a link there and you can pre order it.
Speaker 3: Now, okay, and it's going to be the T shirts.
Speaker 3: There's a cap apparently it's a pretty cool cap seven
Speaker 3: inch vinyl of Strawberry Kisses and apparently the vinyl is
Speaker 3: in Strawberry Kisses red.
Speaker 2: You got it?
Speaker 3: This is great, so fun before I let you go.
Speaker 3: Weirdest place you've heard Strawberry Kisses?
Speaker 4: Oh, probably probably in a bathroom cubicle someone singing it.
Speaker 4: You know, saw me walk in and then sit in
Speaker 4: the cuba cole and just start singing it. That's probably
Speaker 4: the weirdest.
Speaker 1: That's weird. Yeah, it's kind of weird to get it
Speaker 1: in store.
Speaker 3: Radios or like just in the you know, piping through
Speaker 3: the westfield every now and then when you walk in.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, and then my kids start, My two kids
Speaker 4: start belting it out to do embarrassed like it's Nicky
Speaker 4: Webster over here.
Speaker 1: How old are your kids?
Speaker 2: By the way, my daughter's twelve and my son's eight.
Speaker 3: Now did they they obviously know mum was a pop star.
Speaker 3: Do they rinse you for that? Or do they.
Speaker 4: Think I'm still in the cool era? Okay, they don't
Speaker 4: despise me about it yet.
Speaker 1: But now that you've done this merch drop, they're going
Speaker 1: to hate you.
Speaker 4: No, he's my son stole my hat. Oh really at
Speaker 4: home and he stole the hat and my daughter stole
Speaker 4: the top.
Speaker 1: So okay, cool, all right, you're owning it. You're still cooler.
Speaker 1: I'm still cooler, You're still cooler.
Speaker 2: It's a good era.
Speaker 3: Well, congratulations on twenty five years. Congratulations on doing the
Speaker 3: merch range and the merch Drop. That's very exciting because
Speaker 3: you know what a lot of the child stars at
Speaker 3: the time, they're dead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and you can as in the music stand.
Speaker 1: No, Aaron Carter, he gone.
Speaker 2: Let's just be positive.
Speaker 1: Yeah No, I'm just oh yeah, sorry, let's give it up.
Speaker 1: Let's give it up.
Speaker 3: No. But I'm just saying, hey, good on you because,
Speaker 3: like you know, and congratulations that the people around you
Speaker 3: and the people you had, good people around you.
Speaker 1: Yes, they kept time. Most of I don't know. Was
Speaker 1: there drama?
Speaker 2: Hey, I need to tell all a book. That's what
Speaker 2: I should have you done a book. There's stories.
Speaker 3: I know, I know there would be stories, which is
Speaker 3: what I've been trying to poke at and get you
Speaker 3: to tell me the dark side, the underbelly.
Speaker 2: That's it. But no, I'm pretty sure when.
Speaker 3: You write the book, I'll come back talking about everybody.
Speaker 1: You make sure you.
Speaker 2: Come back at this interview in no, well, no, you can.
Speaker 3: Just say, hey, it was a great idea that we
Speaker 3: talked about all of the dark side. I will do
Speaker 3: the forward. I grew up watching her. I thought life
Speaker 3: was great. It turns out there's a dark side to
Speaker 3: Nicky Webster. See there we go already the website, your
Speaker 3: Instagram and your website for the limited edition merch Strawberry
Speaker 3: Kisses Australian iconic anthem, Thank you, thank you.
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