Anthony Field - How I Got My Wiggle Back: A Memoir of Healing

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright 2012 by Anthony Field and Greg Truman. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada

Photo credits: Pages 10 and 164 courtesy of Ben Shaul. All other photos from Anthony Fields personal collection.

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ISBN 978-1-118-01933-7 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-16900-1 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-16901-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-16902-5 (ebk)

This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, John Patrick Field, and the inspirational chiropractors who saved my life.

Preface by Anthony Field

I dont care to look back too often.

Do you want to know about something that happened 15 years ago? You best ask my friend and Wiggles colleague Jeff Fatt. Curious about life a quarter century ago? My brother Paul is your man. Its not that I dont cherish all the fantastic milestones in lifemy marriage, the birth of my kids, career achievementsor want to forget what my departed family members and friends meant to me, Its just that I prefer to focus on whats ahead.

Reflecting on more than 20 years with The Wiggles and nearly 30 as a performer is an odd sensation. After all, Im still completely enveloped by itnearly every waking minuteso to forensically evaluate that part of my life feels a little like writing a premature obituary.

If this book was only going to focus on the three decades and 8,000 shows Ive played, I might be inclined to wait until Ive done a couple of thousand more performances before settling into a comfy chair to celebrate having the best job in the world. But a sequence of events about eight years ago changed my story from being about the adventures of a childrens entertainer to one of survival and, ultimately, personal triumph.

Illness and ailments used to define me. I was addled by theories and advice on what I needed to do to get back on track and my life-light was dimming. I had a litany of health challenges and they were defeating me, until through luck, desperation, and determination I found answers. They are contained in this book, not only as a way to explain what happened to me and focus on the people who helped me, but as a method of getting the word out about some incredible medicine and science that can change lives, millions of them.

I have a young family, a wonderful occupation, and Im in the best shape of my life. In many ways, I feel like Ive only just startedsuch has been my rejuvenation. I fully expect that there will be plenty more to add to the story of The Wiggles and my own jaunt in future years, but some tales need to be told before theyre complete.

Preface by Greg Truman

If youre over five, without children and live in a dark cave you probably dont know that The Wiggles are the most successful pop band for preschool-age children of all time.

While studying to be a preschool teacher in Australia, Anthony Field (the Blue Wiggle) recruited a couple of fellow early childhood education students singer Greg Page (Yellow), guitarist Murray Cook (Red), and a mate from his old rock n roll group, keyboardist Jeff Fatt (Purple)to record a little music for children, and the rest, as The Wiggles character Dorothy the Dinosaur might say, is pre-history.

But for the record, they have dominated childrens music in Australia for two decades and since the turn of the century have done a good job of making an Australian accent a common phenomenon in North American and British households with preschool-age children.

In 2006 and 2009 they received honorary doctorates from two universities for their work with preschoolers and in 2010, the four original members of the group were awarded one of their countrys highest honors, the Order of Australia.

After 20 years on the road, The Wiggles play to more than a million paying customers a year and are still among the biggest live acts on the Australian, New Zealand, southeast Asian, British, and North American concert circuits. Touring North America several times every year since 2000, they frequently draw full houses in some of the largest venues in the United States and Canada and hold numerous box office records, including selling out 12 consecutive shows over a few days in 2003 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Americans got to know the group through their mesmerizing music clips and top-rated cable television program, as well as regular appearances on network television programs such as NBCs Today . The illness-induced departure of The Wiggles original lead singer, Greg Page, in late 2006 was front-page news in the New York Times .

Their profile has been helped over the years by a stream of stars publicly professing their genuine admirationfrom rock legend John Fogerty to members of Metallica and Fleetwood Mac and sports notables such as Shaquille ONeal. Celebrities have kids too, so Robert De Niro, Cate Blanchett, John Travolta, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld have all paid backstage homage to the band at the insistence of their children.

They have sold 27 million DVDs and CDs, more than a million childrens books, millions of educational toys, and have created several successful television series. The groups production arm also has multiple non-Wiggle film and TV projects on screen and in development.

Consistently ranked among Australias highest paid entertainers, The Wiggles have won nine Australian Recording Industry Association awards, the most recent for best childrens recording in 2010.