Grief, loss, a very public cancellation and precarious mental health made 2021 one of the most difficult years of Hugh Sheridan's life.
A four-time Logie-winning actor, singer and dancer, Sheridan — who last year came out as non-binary — told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee of the backlash they endured when they were cast in the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Taking on the title role of Hedwig, an East German boy who undergoes sex change surgery in order to marry an American soldier, was set to be a career high for Sheridan.
But transgender activists singled Sheridan out saying the role should be played by a transgender person and a sustained social media campaign against the production culminated in it being cancelled.
"Then I got engaged and then my father died, two other friends died, and then I got very publicly not engaged and then another friend died," Sheridan said.
But throughout extraordinary tragedy and adversity, there was a constant source of solace for the creative talent.
"The whole time I was listening to a lot of Neil Diamond, so it was a soundtrack," Sheridan reflected.
"Some of those songs really got me through, got me out of my funk."
Chief among them was the track And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind, which Sheridan will forever associate with walking to the hospice on the day their father died.
"I would put my phone on and say, 'Play Neil Diamond on shuffle', and that song came on," Sheridan said.
"It just suddenly had a different meaning for me, that the grass won't pay no mind, just relax and come and be with me."
Lyrical comfort in Diamond
Diamond's work offered a kind of antidote for Sheridan, who was struggling with the emotional turbulence of multiple griefs.
So it is only fitting that Sheridan's show Solitary Man — which is about to tour Australia and features 25 of Diamond's songs — is more a thanksgiving than a tribute act.
"What attracts people to Neil Diamond is his lyrics — or that's certainly what gets me," Sheridan said.
"It's his way of storytelling through songs, and these days it's sort of something that people have really lost.
"I'm a big fan of Harry Styles just like everyone else but a song [lyric] like, say, 'watermelon sugar, high' — I don't even know what that means."
By contrast, Sheridan points to the song Sweet Caroline, which "was actually written about Caroline Kennedy", the daughter of JFK.
"He saw a photo of her and he felt so sorry for her," Sheridan said.
"When you listen to the song knowing that, you get this whole different experience, and I think that's what I love most about him."
Diamond himself is unlikely to be performing in Australia any time soon, cancelling his 2018 tour after revealing he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
"He's been very sick," Sheridan said.
"[But] I really, really hope he gets to see the show at some point."
Mental health in your inbox
Get a selection of the best mental health content from across the ABC by subscribing to our monthly newsletter
