Despite being in the spotlight since 1996, a Las Vegas residency and now being crowned as the winner of Dancing with the Stars Australia 2023, Phil Burton is still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
As part of the hugely successful boy band Human Nature, Burton, alongside his bandmates, Toby Allen, Andrew Tierney and Michael Tierney, has seen an immense amount of success including being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2019, but Burton insists he still has “imposter syndrome”.
“I think I have that little bit of imposter syndrome in me somewhere where you feel like someone one day is going to expose you as a fraud,” Burton told Mediaweek during an interview post his DWTS win.
“All performers have [it], where you feel like you’re on stage doing something and you just feel like, ‘I’m not actually good enough to do this’, and one day, someone’s going to find me out. And it’s a hard thing to get past.”
Thankfully, the 49-year-old has a wonderful support network — including his wife Justine — who has been in his “corner” since they met in Byron Bay in 2001.
“Justine has always been really in my corner and pushing me and convincing me that I can do this,” he said. “It’s an amazing feeling to know that there’s someone 100% behind you with that kind of feeling.”
Phil and Justine Burton. Instagram
Phil Burton’s son asked who the “star” his dad would be dancing with
There’s nothing like kids to keep you humble and when asked what his kids thought of his celebrity status, Burton admitted that his daughter gets it, but his nine-year-old son Xavier hasn’t quite grasped the concept.
“My daughter has actually said to me that she’s been asked at school, ‘What it’s like to have a dad that’s famous?’ And her response to them is, ‘Well, I could ask you what it’s like to have a dad that’s not’. Because for her, that’s just the way it is,” he explained.
“[However], my nine-year-old son – he hates me telling this story, he reckons it embarrasses him, but it’s more embarrassing to me — we kept the secret of me doing Dancing with the Stars away from our kids for a few weeks. And then when we told them, my nine-year-old son said, ‘Oh, that’s awesome. Which star is Daddy dancing with?’”
“He thought I was the pro dancer and someone else was going to be the star,” he laughed. “That’s pulling your feet right back down to earth that one.”
Phil Burton and his kids Willow and Xavier. Instagram
Phil Burton on how Human Nature has remained so strong
If you can believe it, Human Nature formed in 1989 after singing Marvin Barry’s Earth Angel together in High School. Since that fated day, they have released thirteen studio albums, three compilation albums, five video albums, one extended play (EP), twenty-two singles and thirty-two music videos.
“I think that initial bond of friendship is really what has kept us together for that long,” he said. “We didn’t get together for any business decision. We didn’t get together by audition. We were friends at school who decided to sing a song together. And so that initial friendship is still there and has kept us going through all these years.”
In fact, Burton says that being in the band helped him discover who he was. Before they “got too busy”, he dabbled in music teaching, but was grateful that the band took off, given that he didn’t have the “patience to teach 30 kids”.
Phil Burton and Human Nature. Ten
“At the end of high school, I was a little bit lost,” he said. I wasn’t lost, I just hadn’t really figured out exactly what I wanted to do at that point, so I went and did music teaching and a music education degree, which I never finished. The group got too busy, and I had to quit.”
“It’s really difficult to say [what else he would have done] because the group did get very busy,” he added. “And it was pretty much straight away. It was, ‘Okay, this is your job now’. And I’ve been so lucky in that I’ve never had to think about what I might do if it didn’t succeed, because, luckily, we did succeed.”
Phil Burton reflects on his Dancing with the Stars win
Winning Dancing with the Stars 2023 has also been a huge achievement for Burton who said that he still misses going into the studio to rehearse with dance partner Ash-Leigh Hunter. But it was the “camaraderie” between the cast backstage which was the best part.
“During the whole filming of the show, none of it actually felt like anyone was trying to beat each other,” he admitted. “It always just felt like we were just trying to do our best. We wanted this to be a great shared experience and a great TV show. So the camaraderie backstage was like you wouldn’t believe. There were hugs and there was pumping each other up. It was gorgeous. It was a really beautiful bunch of people to work with.”
Burton and Hunter. Seven
To complete the win, Burton walked away with a cool $20k for his charity NSW Police Legacy, a cause very special to his heart as his dad, who passed away in 2004, was a police officer.
“They are a foundation that reaches out to help families who had a police officer in the family who had passed away,” he said. “Whether it’s the dad, or the mum, or a brother or a sister, someone in the family was a police officer who passed away. So, they reach out with financial assistance, but also assistance with kids, getting them through school, taking them on camps and showing them a little light in what’s a pretty dark time in their life.”
Even though his dad wasn’t actively serving at the time of his death, the charity still reached out to his family.
“Police Legacy still reached out to my family and to my mum. and said, ‘What can we do to help? How can we help you through this?’ and it was just a really, really beautiful thing. And even to this day, my mum still goes to functions that New South Wales Police Legacy holds.”
Stream the full Dancing with the Stars Australia 2023 season on 7Play.