Samuel Johnson has taken aim at Molly Meldrum, telling him to “hang up his hat” over his recent Elton John stunt that saw him pull down his pants and moon the audience next to the ‘Rocket Man’ singer while he was performing.
Meldrum was in the audience for Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour and the star paid tribute to him by calling him a “national treasure” and thanking him for his “love and loyalty”. Meldrum this jumped on stage and stood next to John as her performed ‘The Bitch Is Back’. At the end of the performance, Meldrum dropped his pants and mooned the audience.
Sam Johnson called him out over the stunt, accusing him of stealing Elton John’s moment. Molly Meldrum infamously interrupted Johnson on stage when he was awarded the Gold Logie for his portrayal of Meldrum in the miniseries Molly. At the time he was cut off, Johnson was discussing his charity, Love Your Sister, and thanking his sister, Connie, who was battling cancer at the time and later died.
“He needs to hang up his hat. Now,” Johnson told 4BC’s Afternoons with Sofie Formica of Meldrum’s mooning stunt.
“They announced my name, my million dollar moment where I was going to plug the charity, and Molly got up and gave me a hat and (what followed was) interminable dribble for about eight minutes. Nobody understood, and he took away my moment.
He added, “And recently, he took away the moment of Elton John as well. I’m sick of him doing this, I’m sick of it, hang up your hat, mate.”
Meldrum received a large amount of backlash for interrupting Johnson and the former Hey Hey It’s Saturday host issued a half hearted apology.
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“I profusely apologise if I upset anyone,” Meldrum told NewsCorp at the time.
“I’m so very proud of Sam. Everyone should be proud of him. His speech for his sister Connie was beautiful and his charity work is simply amazing.
“He’s gone through a lot lately. And if people had problems understanding what I was trying to say, well, that’s nothing new to me,” he said.
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