The Tamworth Country Music Festival almost always includes
Australia Day, 26 January, and it’s arguable that there’s no one more
appropriate to headline an Australia Day show than Lee Kernaghan. No one can
doubt that Lee loves his homeland and he finds ways to show it, whether it’s
raising money to support farmers doing it tough or encouraging young Australian
country music artists. At this year’s festival Lee is putting on a special Boys
from the Bush 25th Anniversay Show at 8.15 p.m on the 26th,
at the TRECC.
I chatted to Lee towards the end of 2016 to find out what he has planned.
What does Tamworth
mean to you, both the town and the festival?
It’s an amazing town because it gave birth to my music
career. I first turned up in Tamworth in 1978, at the CCMA Talent Quest. I won
best new artist under 14 years of age. And through the years I was lucky enough
to win the Star Maker and pick up my very first Golden Guitar at the Country
Music Awards in January 1993. So I really owe that town a whole heap.
When you were in that
under-14 competition, was that something you’d always wanted to do – you were a
really little kid working up to it – or did you just decide to do it at the
time?
I think country music has been in my blood, part of my DNA.
I was born with it. It had always been my dream to go to Tamworth and these
days I get there and get to play some of the great venues in town, and it
really has given birth to careers of people like Keith Urban, James Blundell,
Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley, and we’re all really, truly grateful for
what the town has done for us.
Given that you play
in so many different places – and you play so much, full stop – do you have a
special feeling about playing in Tamworth or is the same sort of show as
elsewhere?
It’s always extra special and it’s because of those people
who travel from all around Australia to be there, to share in the music. Or
they might be there to try to break into the music industry – it might be
busking down there on Peel Street or entering one of the talent quests, like
Star Maker. There’s just so much excitement around the town. You get down there
on Peel Street during the country music festival and the atmosphere is
electric.
Mind you, I’d think
it’s hard for you to walk down Peel Street without it taking about five hours
to get from one end to the next.
Well, I don’t mind because I made my very first film clip in
Peel Street, for ‘Boys from the Bush’, and I’m going back there in January and
I’m going to make another film clip because it’s the 25th
anniversary of The Outback Club
[album]. We’ve also got a big concert on at the TRECC on Australia Day to
launch the 25th anniversary tour.
The Australia Day
slot is a pretty special one to have at the festival and this year you have it.
Given that it’s 25th anniversary, and it’s that special day, what’s
going to be different about this show?
It’s going to be different because a meeting has been called
of the Outback Club and they are coming in from all over the place for this
one. We’re going to be playing a lot of hits, of course, but I’m also going to
be playing a lot of brand new songs that I’ve been working on in the studio with
some of my heroes and mates and legends in Australian music, and we’re going to
start unleashing some material on that crowd on Australia Day.
Are the Wolfe
Brothers going to be with you?
I can’t confirm or deny [laughs]. I’m under strict
instructions, I’ve got to keep the lid on all of that.
Except I did see on
your Twitter feed that Nick Wolfe was in the studio with you …
That’s right. There’s leaks everywhere [laughs]. I love
those boys and I love working with them and playing live is an awesome experience.
You’re very good
complementary acts because you have incredible work ethics and you really
understand audience and communicating with audience.
I remember seeing the Wolfe Brothers for the first time on Australia’s Got Talent and they just
blew me away. A couple of months after seeing them on TV I ended up in a
rehearsal studio with the boys, having a bit of a jam session. At that time
they all had day jobs and I said, ‘Fellas, how would you feel about giving up
those day jobs and coming out on tour with me?’ They jumped at the opportunity
and we hit the road.
And, of course, they
haven’t looked back and you roll on and get bigger and bigger as the years go
on. It’s been a long time – you were there as a teenager, it’s been 25 years
since ‘Boys from the Bush’, and this is a job that’s quite demanding. It’s
physically demanding; it can be quite emotionally and creatively demanding.
What motivates you to continue every day and every year?
The after-show parties [laughs]. I was reminiscing about the
early days, back in 1992. I was on tour with James Blundell, in his band and I
was his opening artist. Out there on that tour, every day would be a new town
and another motel room and another big party. And we partied like there was no
tomorrow – and the reason why we did that was that we thought, This is too good to be true – this can’t
last [laughs]. But it did and it’s been 25 years now.
I don’t for a second
believe that you indulge in too much partying because you’d have to be fit to
keep up your pace.
Oh yeah, you gotta be in training, mate [laughs]. Don’t want
to come into this undertrained. You’ve got to turn up, shut up and get into it.
Have you found that
the shape of your audience has changed? Are they growing up with you, or older
with you, as the case may be? Or do you see a lot of younger people coming into
your shows?
It’s really been amazing me throughout the last two and a
half decades how the audience keeps regenerating. There’s a lot of kids who get
into it and I think that’s probably why ‘Boys from the Bush’ and The Outback Club impacted the way it
did, because it was about a younger generation of Australians living and
working on the land. And they’re still out there today and still coming along
to the shows but so are their mums and dads and their grandparents. It’s a
great privilege to play to all these people and I absolutely don’t think of
them as fans at all, they seem to me to be more like my extended family.
I really believe that
they feel that in return for you. The country music audience is accepting of a
whole lot of different and new artists but I think their requirement is
authenticity and connection, and for people to turn up for you year after year
they really feel that connection strongly.
That’s so true, Sophie. It comes down to being real and I
think that [in] the country music fraternity there’s a great level of
camaraderie between the artists and, of course, their fans. It’s a great
relationship. Country music, the way I see it, it’s the music of our people,
our country, our way of life. It’s all about the things that make us tick, and
that’s what makes it real for me.
I’m sure there are
people who talk to you who might have a song idea or something they’d like you
to write about, do you feel that the stories or, perhaps, concerns of your
audience are changing?
With songs, you just never know where the next one’s going
to come from. Often it’s in a chance meeting, a turn of phrase, rolling into a
country town for the first time. It’s hard to really pin it down, where they come
from. But I know that a song is only ever as strong as the idea behind it. And
I think great songs are things you don’t actually manufacture in a songwriting
workshop – it’s more about getting out there and living life, experiencing it
first hand and talking to people, and I know that’s where most of my material
comes from.
It’s probably
impossible for you to pick a favourite song – but do you have one, or do you
have a handful of favourites?
Songs, when you record them and you put them out on a record
it’s like giving birth to a child and it’s hard to pick favourites amongst your
own kids [laughs]. But ‘Boys from the Bush’ was the one that kicked down the
doors and paved the way for me, so it’s a song I’ve sung thousands of times and
never ever once got sick of performing it.
As an audience member
I’ve often wondered how artists play the same songs over and over again, but I
guess the crowd is new each time and the venue’s new, and you just never know
who you’re singing that song for on that particular night.
That’s true. You share the song with the country, with the
people – it’s ours. They all mean different things to different people. I know
that there are certain songs that I was listening to when I was falling in love
for the first time or breaking up with a girl, rolling on a mission on the
Newell Highway in a 1978 Ford Cortina with a broken windscreen and I know I was
listening to Hank Williams, Jr on my Craig stereo system. I had a broken heart
and a broken windscreen. I think Trisha Yearwood did it best when she recorded
that beautiful track ‘The Song Remembers When’.
Is there a venue or a
town you haven’t played in yet that you would really like to?
Yes – Birdsville. I’ve played up in Birdsville [laughs] but
I haven’t physically done a gig there. In July I’m going to be the Big Red Bash
and it’s the most remote music festival in Australia and I’m going to joined by
James Blundell, Troy Cassar-Daley, the McClymonts and a bunch of legends for
this incredible event.
Finally: you’re well
known for your charity work and supporting a lot of different causes. Is there anything
you’re working with at the moment that you’d like to mention?
I’m a bit supporter of the McGrath Foundation, inspired by
the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners – they did a terrific job getting feed to stock
in drought-stricken Queensland. I’ve just returned from Western Queensland
where it’s green, really green out there – it’s unusual to see it. There’s a
lot more optimism there now than what there was a year ago. Probably the
highlight of my career has been the Toyota Pass the Hat Around Australia
concerts because every dollar that was raised in the town stayed in the town. No
costs came out of it – it was all for the towns, and that’s how a couple of
million dollars was raised for community causes around Australia and that’s something
that’s still very close to my heart, and I think most people in Australia –
whether you’re in the music industry or not – the Australian way is to look out
for a mate who’s doing it tough. Whether it’s a drought, flood or a bushfire or
an important community cause, when things are tough in Australia, Australians pass
the hat around and they do look after their mates.
Lee Kernaghan plays
the TRECC on 26 January as part of the 2017 Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Tickets here.
Lee’s 25th
anniversary album will be released in March, with a tour to follow. Details at
www.leekernaghan.com
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