[4][5] He grew up in the small town of Tullibigeal in central western New South Wales as the youngest of three children with his older brothers Adam and Damian.

[6][7] Noll spent his entire childhood and teenage years on the family farm, which raised sheep and cattle and grew cereal crops.

[6] In 2003, Noll successfully auditioned for the first season of Australian Idol, singing Southern Sons' "Hold Me in Your Arms".

[11] His audition impressed all three judges, including Marcia Hines who told him that she had just discovered "a voice" and Ian Dickson who informed Noll that "Australia will love you".

He eventually progressed through to the grand final with Guy Sebastian, following contestant Cosima De Vito's withdrawal from the competition.

[17][23] The second single "Drive", an uptempo rock track written by Canadian singer Bryan Adams,[24] reached number four in Australia and was certified platinum for shipments of 70,000 copies.

[29] By late 2004 the Nine Network had approached Noll to re-record the Australian cricket anthem "C'mon Aussie C'mon" with updated lyrics.

[6] He later decided not to use any of the material he wrote with Child and also passed on a song by Warren because he preferred his work with local Australian songwriters.

[6] Throughout February and March 2005, Noll opened for Bryan Adams on the Australian leg of his Room Service Tour.

[17][33] The album, with 11 out of 13 tracks co-written by Noll, covered topics including finding love, death, overcoming odds and self belief.

[17] Noll received two nominations at the 2006 ARIA Music Awards, including Highest Selling Single for "Shine" and Best Pop Release for Lift.

[39][40] Noll was set to star in the film King of the Mountain, based loosely on the life of Australian racer Peter Brock, but he declined the offer.

The decision was seen as part of his effort to gain success in the US, after having previously put on showcase performances for music industry executives with no luck.

[43][44] In December 2006 Noll and Natalie Bassingthwaighte released a cover of the Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet "Don't Give Up" which peaked at number two and was certified platinum, after spending eleven consecutive weeks in the top ten.

[17][45] It served as the lead single from the compilation album Home: Songs of Hope & Journey, which was released to raise funds for beyondblue's depression research activities.

[46] "Don't Give Up" earned Noll a nomination for Highest Selling Single at the ARIA Music Awards the following year.

[17][51] Noll had travelled to the US earlier that year to work on the album with several songwriters and producers, including Richard Marx, Luke Ebbin and Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora.

[55][57] In June 2009, Noll again appeared as Parson Nathaniel in the UK tour of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.

[62][63] He returned to Australia the following month for his acoustic In the Raw Tour, which featured a special Q&A session with host Nick Bennett.

[65] He later signed with Universal Music Australia and released his fourth album A Million Suns on 14 October 2011 which debuted at number eight.

[17][66] The lead single "Switch Me On" was co-written by Benji Madden of Good Charlotte,[67] and its music video was filmed in Tokyo.

[71] In April 2012, Noll became a contestant on the twelfth season of Dancing with the Stars Australia and was partnered with professional dancer Elena Samodanova.

[76] From November 2012 to February 2013, Noll embarked on his In My Youth Tour which featured him performing acoustic covers of songs from the '80s that were chosen by his fans.

[77] In late 2013 Noll became the featured promoter of South Australian retailer Radio Rentals and its sister brand RT Edwards in Queensland.

[86] On 4 December, Noll and his record label Warner Music announced his fifth studio album is titled Unbroken and was released in Australia on 2 February 2018.

[87] On 4 November 2019, Noll released a song titled "Long Live the Summer", which was the lead single for his forthcoming sixth studio album.

[citation needed] Noll regularly appears in fundraisers for Movember, a foundation that supports research into testicular cancer.

In June 2016, the 'GATchphrase' for the 2016 GAT (a theme chosen by the VCE students of Victoria to write into their papers to show group protest) was voted to be Shannon Noll was robbed of the 2003 Australian Idol title.

[117] Noll married his long-time girlfriend Rochelle Ogston at St Peter's Church in Cremorne, New South Wales, on 2 October 2004.

Noll later apologised on Facebook, writing: "I completely understand that that is still no excuse for the way I spoke and I am deeply sorry for the terrible things I said that were purely out of frustration.