Casino Scene: Newton-John finds emotional healing with music, cause

Thirty years after Sandy Olsson teased her hair, slithered into a pair of black spandex pants and crushed a cigarette with her stiletto heel, audiences remain hopelessly devoted to Olivia Newton-John, the Australian actress and singer who played the good-girl-gone-bad character in the film version of the hit musical "Grease."

An icon of the '70s and '80s, Olivia Newton-John will take the stage for a concert at Sam's Town on Saturday.

Films like "Grease" and "Xanadu," as well as a string of pop and country hits, including "I Honestly Love You," "You're the One That I Want" and "Physical," made Newton-John an icon of the late '70s and early '80s and one of the best-selling artists of the era. But outside of one of her rare concert appearances, like the one scheduled Saturday at 8 p.m. at Sam's Town Casino's River Palace Entertainment Center, Newton-John prefers to live in the present, not the past.

And with her schedule, it's easy to understand why. Over the next few months , Newton-John will wrap up her musical tour. She then goes to Japan for the launch of a breast self-examination kit she promotes. She follows that with a promotional tour for her husband's new energy drink, and then an Australia fundraiser for a hospital she is building in Melbourne.

"I've got such a busy life its hard to focus on anything else," Newton-John says from her Florida home.

The bulk of her calendar is taken up with charity work, part of a concerted effort on her part to give back following her own brush with breast cancer 15 years ago. Newton-John was on the eve of a world tour in 1992 when she learned of her diagnosis, the same weekend her father passed away.

Since her cure a year later, she has been a tireless advocate for fighting breast cancer, funding the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, building the Gaia Retreat and Spa, a place for cancer patients to recover from treatment, in Byron Bay, Australia, and promoting the Liv Aid self-examination kits.

"The longer distance you get away from (the cancer) the more you can get involved because you feel more secure," says Newton-John. "I feel very lucky and fortunate that I'm here and healthy and can help other women."

Her work against cancer has also informed her creative life. The handful of albums she has recorded since her cancer have taken on an increasingly New Age bent that puts the emphasis less on pop success than on spiritual healing. Newton-John continued the trend on her most recent record, last year's A Celebration In Song, a duets album that teams her with such friends as Cliff Richard, Barry Gibb, Richard Marx and Keith Urban.

"I'm more into the healing kind of music," says Newton-John. "Going forward I'd like to do another healing album. I get such wonderful feedback from people who it has made feel better and centered."

Despite her full slate of activities, including her ongoing role as a gay country singer in the Logo channel series "Sordid Lives," Newton-John, 60, is embarking on a new adventure. Last year, she married health guru and environmental activist John "Amazon John" Easterling, who's Amazon Herb Company promotes products like the energy drink Zamu. Newton-John had known Easterling for 15 years before he took her on a trip to Peru two years ago.

"We fell madly in love in the rainforest, and we got married there a year later," says Newton-John, who now works with her husband on causes related to the region, including the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER). "My whole life has changed. I love Peru, and I love the rainforest, and I love him. My whole life has opened up."

Tickets are $45 and $55 and are available at the Sam's Town box office and through all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information, visit samstowntunica.com.

Sawyer Brown

Longtime country-pop favorites Sawyer Brown perform at Fitzgerald's Casino's Great Hall Saturday at 8 p.m.

The group first came together in the late '70s as singer Don King's touring band. When King quit the road in 1981, the band's members formed Sawyer Brown. Their big break came two years later when they appeared on and won the first season of "Star Search," the Ed McMahon-hosted precursor to "American Idol." The show not only netted the band $100,000 but launched them on a career that has included 18 Top 10 hits.

Aside from a new greatest-hits package and a Christmas album, Sawyer Brown has largely been absent from the studio since their 2005 effort Mission Temple Fireworks Stand. Instead, the individual members have been pursuing outside interests, including lead singer Mark Miller's Christian music label, Beach Street records.

A posting on the band's Web site, however, reveals that the group recently reconvened to begin work on an album of new material to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their signing their first record deal.

Tickets are $25 for general admission and $35 for reserved seating and are available at the Fitz gift shop and through all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information, visit fitzgeraldstunica.com.

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