Do we like Molly Meldrum?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, plus decades of Aussie music championing and charity work; the record I could open is thin on recent years.
Molly Meldrum is the bloke who, as talent coordinator and on-air interviewer, turned Countdown into the centre of Australian pop from 1974. Sources disagree on his birth year, and he has been famously reticent about his childhood. He started out as a roadie for his mates in The Groop in 1964 and built a career on pure enthusiasm for the music.
The harm check is a clean sheet in what I could open. I found no comments from him against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, no conspiracy-theory slide, and no dodgy projects to trace. He told Yahoo in 2014 that he's gay and happy, said he didn't think of it as coming out, and summed up his attitude with “I love everyone, I do.” That was a big deal for a mainstream TV presenter of the 70s and 80s.
His best-known recent scandal is the January 2023 Elton John concert, where he pushed past security to greet Elton mid-song and his trousers fell. Meldrum called it an accident from a broken belt buckle and said he was just a “naughty boy who needs a new belt”. He also said he felt terrible if any security staff got in trouble. A later Melbourne concert incident was reported mainly via the Daily Mail, which is tabloid territory, so I've left the detail out.
On the good stuff, the establishment has long honoured him. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1986 for services to music and charities, and received an ARIA Special Achievement Award in 1993. Elton John has called him the single most important influence in Australian pop music, and Michael Gudinski said he had a profound impact on the industry. Red Symons credits his great strength as setting people at ease.
Nothing new on him lately that I could verify, and the record I could open is thin on the last few years. No court cases, fines or convictions turned up in my searches. Friends and peers describe him as warm and generous, and the closest thing to a rap sheet is cringe moments.