“You have to be able to enjoy your own life without caring too much what other people think. Life is only one day long.”
This is what Dozi, the Afrikaans musician and songwriter, says on Rian van Heerden’s kykNET talk show, Late night at Rian’s.
“We can’t do anything about yesterday and what happens tomorrow – who knows? I can’t waste my time with negative comments.”
Rian, well-known TV producer and presenter, asked Dozi some direct questions at the table in his Delizioso restaurant in Pretoria. Controversial businessman Louis Liebenberg and radio announcer Gareth Cliff were also previously guests on the show.
Among other things, Dozi expanded on his good relationship with his young musician son Storm, and his three divorces, two of which made headlines in the local media due to Dozi’s fame for the song, “Ou ryperd”, which was released in 2001.
The singer, also known for Afrikaans hits such as “Grassade in die wind” and “Tussen jou en my”, says frankly during the interview that he could not conform to the traditional marriage.
“I’m not a boss, I’m a muso. Nothing on earth holds me down. I will decide to-morrow morning that I will go to France; something must not hold me back. My soul is too loose and I cannot lose my personality (in a marriage). I like myself too much.”
“You are not selfish if you love yourself,” he says. “You have to yourself like. There are too few people who really like themselves. You have to wake up and get stimuli when you look at yourself in the mirror, without being arrogant,” says Dozi with a laugh.
He was married in the late nineties to the mother of his son, from whom he was divorced a few years later. He then married in 2007 and again in 2019, but was divorced again and again.
He says that although over the years there were hundreds of women who “waited for him after the shows”, he always wondered if they were interested in him under false pretenses.
Dozi emphasized that he is not currently looking for love. Matie van Graan of Boerboel Wear fame surprised Dozi on the show.
Dozi, whose real name is Henk Opperman, also confesses to Rian that he was a calm farm boy, but that he now lives a fearless life.
“To tear yourself down in life is the worst thing you can do,” says Dozi.
Late night at Rian’s can be seen on Tuesday evenings at 21:00 on kykNET, DStv channel 144. It is also available on DStv Catch Up.
