‘I got some interesting feedback from women’: Tim Minchin discusses song about wanting to ‘f*** someone’

Australian musician sang about the challenges of monogamy in his 2020 song ‘I’ll Take Lonely Tonight’

Tim Minchin has opened up about a song on his most recent album that is, as he put it, about wanting to “f*** someone”.

The musician and comedian’s third debut album, Ready for This? (2009), includes the song “If I Didn’t Have You”, in which the Australian singer croons about his decade-long marriage to his wife Sarah: “Our love is one in a million.”

Then, on his latest 2020 album, Apart Together, he describes the struggles of monogamy and resisting the urge to have sex with “one of those others I swore to forsake” in a song titled “I’ll Take Lonely Tonight”.

“I got some interesting feedback from women when that came out,” Minchin told iNews, in a new interview published on Wednesday 23 November.

“Some sobbed because it was so beautiful. Other women said, ‘So you didn’t f*** someone. What do you want? A medal?’”

He explained that he “learned all about the femme fatale myth at uni. I know that we have, unfairly, historically cast women as temptresses and men as victims.

“But just because we have a more educated lens through which to understand how we’ve treated women, doesn’t mean you don’t end up in a situation where you really, really, reaaaally want to f*** someone. Whether you’re a man or a woman.”

Minchin further described his experience with sexual desire as “one of the most powerful feelings in the world”, sharing that he’s “wired” in such a way that in those situations, it’s like he’s been “spellbound or poisoned”.

Tim Minchin (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images f)

“My brain is screaming, ‘DO THIS! THIS IS ALL YOU WANT TO DO!’ Surely there is a way to unpack that in a self-aware way,” he said.

Minchin added: “Fame changes you. My mum says that I’ve changed and she’s right. It doesn’t surprise me that so many famous people end up taking cocaine and behaving like f***wits.

“I was just brought up with a value system that prioritises family and monogamy. Selfishly I believe I will be happier if I don’t f*** that up.”

In a separate interview, Minchin said that it has taken him “f***ing years” to get healthy.

“Because being able to exercise is something that rich people get to do,” he said. “That’s one of the privileges of things having gone well.”