Born on April 16: Peter Garrett (Midnight Oil), rockstar one day, activist forever

Peter Garrett was born in Sydney, Australia in 1953.

After tragically losing his parents a few years apart, the young man, barely 20 years old, found himself head of the family, raising his siblings alone.

An environmental activist standing 1.93m tall (nicknamed "the green giant"), he devoted his free time to music. Successfully, after responding to a small ad, he joined as a singer with the band Midnight Oil in 1976. Together, they championed and set to music the causes dear to them, achieving success beyond their country's borders.

Growing more confident, the singer-songwriter made his mark with "Place Without A Postcard", followed by "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1". In 1980, after the release of the album "Diesel And Dust" (one of their biggest successes), they were found in New York, in front of Exxon Mobile's offices for an impromptu concert protesting an oil spill. That's how the members of the Australian band were: committed and engaged: "With the band, it was never sex, drugs, and rock and roll," he comments. Instead, they sang against deforestation and nuclear power, and for the respect of Aboriginal rights.

In 2002, amicably and after 2000 concerts and 140 songs, the band split up, allowing Garrett to fully dedicate himself to his political commitments. In 2007, he became Minister for the Environment, reaching the platform he had hoped to obtain one day.

The rock star released his first solo album in 2016: "A Version Of Now". He also embarked on a long tour with his former bandmates, reuniting for a bonus year and an album, "Resist". "I consider the trajectory of Midnight Oil as miraculous, in the sense that we managed to find each other, and then reunite many times, with quality records that don't age so badly," he recently confided in an interview, on the occasion of the release of his latest album "The True North".

(MH with Céline Massart - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil on the stage of the Rock Werchter festival (Belgium) in July 1990