3. And then there's the full-frontal nudity in one of your music videos: was that to warn people away too?
That's art. I directed it [Secret Fear] and produced it and it's not all just about the penis. It's my take on monogamous relationships. I'm pro all kinds of relationships - polygamous, polyamorous, monogamous. I'm pro people getting together. But the video is about the price you have to pay to be fully in love with one person.
4. Do you have a significant other?
I wouldn't say in an interview.
5. What was your first reaction to being approached about being an X Factor judge?
What level of selling out will I be required to do it? Can I work for a boss and do I want Simon [Cowell, executive producer of X Factor] to be that boss? Then I remembered that it's New Zealand and that nowadays this really is one of the biggest chances [for] any [emerging] pop artist, and if I get inside I might be able to make sure the right people get through.
6. Are the right people getting through?
The three I have chosen (Cassie, Eden and Jackie) needed to be championed to get their music out there. Some of the other judges are playing it like a game, which is what it is. But Ruby's choices last night, talking about Fletcher as if he had a lot to learn - unbelievable. The man's a god. He's fully fledged. I yelled at the TV - some phrase with the word pink in it, as in 'you pink' something. Putting Fletcher out and Tom in was far below Ruby, in my opinion.
7. Gordon Smart in the Sun once described you as a "squeaky voiced warbler" who was planning an unwelcome comeback in 2008. Have you had to develop a thick skin as a pop singer in Britain?
That was very kind of him. I have had to develop a thick skin only from English media. Everyone has to with the English media. It's sport. I don't live in England.
8. You and your two sisters are singers and your brother, Joshua, is a manager. Did your parents plan on this?
My parents probably wept over it. They supported whatever we wanted to do but they paid a heavy price for their children's ambitions - it took them away from their work as about half of their time was spent taking us to gigs. They moved to Brixton from New Zealand after the 1981 riots to help people. They are kind of hippie dreamers with a very active social conscience and into political change.
9. Your voice changed after a serious car accident in Whangarei in 2004. What else did that crash change?
I was less willing to put up with working with people I didn't like. Now I just work with people that like me and I like them. I decided to leave my record company [Polydor] and it took me eight years to do that. Now I release music the way I like, when I like, decide my own musical view. And I choose what I wear.
10. What's your 10-year plan?
I want 100,000 super fans who will buy any and everything I do, spread across the planet in countries I like to visit, and about five million people that regularly buy most of my music for the rest of my life.
11. You once said you weren't much into religion but you're all about God; what does that mean?
There are a few spiritual things that science hasn't fully caught up with that many of us see the evidence of in our daily lives - like when someone's in trouble far away and you know it. Like the amazing power of positive energy or prayer and its influence on the human body or situation. Religion seems to be an attempt to codify it without logic and without proof but I believe that one day science will catch up with it and it will all merge.
12. You recently scouted for an intern with a car to be your PA and help you in X Factor: shouldn't you be paying for that?
Interns gain a lot of experience. They find out how the business works and get a shoo-in. I once got 50 people applying for an intern role in Britain and I hired them all for a month to work on a campaign for my music. It was awesome. But now I only want one.
