Buddy Goode has More Rubbish

Connoisseurs of fine music will already be familiar with Buddy Goode - and if you haven't introduced his Christmas album to your Yuletide festivities, do not hesitate to buy it immediately. This Christmas, however, Buddy has no new carols for his fans. Instead, he is offering them More Rubbish, a brand new album of brand new songs. And he's launching the album - his first launch ever - at Rooty Hill RSL in Sydney on Saturday 17 December.

Ahead of the launch, and the release of More Rubbish, I spoke to Buddy and, maybe, to his alter ego, Mike Carr.

The first thing I have to say is that I have not heard the album.

Well, the reason why is that we only finished recording it about ten days ago. No, it was delivered about ten days ago so it was finished recording about fourteen days ago.

And when did you start writing it?

Oh, about three days before that [laughs]. No, I started writing it a while ago but there wasn’t going to be a new album this year because I didn’t feel inspired. But I got some inspiration one night. I woke up and spoke to L Ron Hubbard and just got the inspiration. The next day I rang ABC [Music] and said, ‘Look, I’d love to do another album’, and they decided it would be a great idea, so we thought we’d do it. And it’s done and it’s here and, to be honest with you, I think it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever done [laughs].

Maybe that distilled process of creativity and productivity was the trick.

I think so, yes. And when you spend extended periods of your life really bored, the only way to get out of it is to be creative. I’d had a great break from it this year. I hadn’t done many Buddy shows this year – I only did a couple of things during the year because my alter ego, Mike Carr, was doing other things [Adam Brand and the Outlaws] and then I thought I was going to take the whole year off, but then I guess I got a little bit of itchy feet.

There is now a lot of thinking and writing about the value of boredom when it comes to creativity. The kiddies aren’t getting bored any more, they’re always occupied with the screens – it’s not good for them.

No, it’s not. I believe the children – and a lot of this album I dedicate to the kids out there, hence the reason why the very first album launch that I’m doing on December 17^th at Rooty Hill – after all these years, I’ve never done one for the other albums.

Why not?

I don’t know. I can’t answer that question! I just never thought it was something I wanted to do. I haven’t even had an unofficial launch or anything like that. I’ve just released an album and gone and done the gigs. This year I thought, Oh, you know, let’s do it a bit differently. Have a launch. But it was mainly for the kids, as I said. My album launch is twelve plus – the families can come along. Not meaning that I’m going to change anything that I do in my act.

[Laughs] I was about to say, ‘How does that fit in with your act?’

Well, you know, the whole things is [that] you’re not watching Kevin Bloody Wilson. There’s no swearing in the show. It’s all double meanings. So it’s entertaining for the kids because Buddy’s just entertaining – I could be the fifth Wiggle, in all honesty. Over the years I’ve just discovered that there are a lot of families who do enjoy it with their kids and the kids like certain songs, and they’re not necessarily the dirtiest songs. Sometimes they are but [the kids] don’t have a clue what it’s about, they just think it’s funny. I’ve only ever had half-a-dozen walkouts before in all my shows, and I’ve performed to a lot of kids and families over the years. I don’t see it as a problem. It was a problem for a lot of people for a long time because they didn’t quite understand. But I said, ‘Look, you’re obviously not fans, you’re not listening to the albums – you have to listen closer.’ And once they got closer to it they could see the value in it for their children [laughs].

There’s a lot of colour and movement in a Buddy Goode proposition – the kiddies love that.

That’s right. It was Cruisin’ Country, I did a show one night in one of the bars and there was a family of six sitting right next to me – Mum and Dad and four kids – and I just looked down and the kids were all singing the words to one of my songs. Probably not the most appropriate one, but they were all having a wonderful time. So I just thought it was about time [for a show for kids] considering, as you said, technology – they’ve all got an iPad, they’ve all got a smart phone, they’re all on them all the time, they’ve seen a lot worse than Buddy Goode on there.

It must be pretty fantastic when you can look down and see people singing along.

Especially ten-year-olds. It’s amazing, you know. Because there’s nothing out there for them, ten-year-olds. What have they got to pick from – Miley Cyrus? The Jonas Brothers and the occasional two-week wonder that pops along? Buddy’s something that can stay with them forever, you know what I mean?

Just like a bad Christmas present.

That’s right. Exactly right. Like the knitted reindeer jumper. There’s a lot of influences for the songs. There’s nothing that child friendly on here but there’s some stuff that they can have a good giggle at along with their mums and dads.

If you only delivered the album ten days ago, how did you organise that cover photo so quickly – with a garbage truck, no less.

It was quite random. I had my photographer with me and we were driving round the streets looking for some alleyways and some garbage bins, just to have some shots. I drove round this corner and there was this garbage truck pulled over with three garbos having a smoko [laughs]. So I just drove in, fully dressed, and I said to the boys, ‘What are you doing for the next ten minutes?’ and they said, ‘We’re smokin’.’ And I said, ‘Can I take some photos on your truck?’ and they said, ‘Absolutely [laughs]. As long as you don’t put the numberplate in there.’ So that’s how that happened. It was totally random and I promised them all an album for Christmas. I’ve got all their addresses. So they were stoked. They had no idea what was happening to them and neither did I.

And I love the fact that they saw a fully dressed Buddy Goode and said, ‘Yep, mate – go ahead.’

[Laughs] Absolutely. They did. They were in shock.

In the press release for More Rubbish it mentions that this is a good album for the ‘average Joe and Joelene’. Does Buddy Goode relate to the average person? I’m not convinced that Buddy Goode is average.

Well, no, he’s not. He can mix in any circle, you know what I mean. He can certainly lower himself for any occasion. And the proof is on the record that he can lower himself for any occasion. The reason the album is for the average Joe is because the last two albums have been specifically themed albums: Songs to Ruin Every Occasion and the Christmas album. This time I’ve gone back to The One and Only Buddy Goode and Unappropriate. Unappropriate won my first ARIA and I think it was a great album. So this is a bit of a return to those days of Buddy Goode. There’s no themes. It’s just writing songs about the wonderful world that we live in.

When you come to write these songs, what sort of inspiration is there – is it an object, is it a person or an experience that sparks things? Or is it all completely random and you never know when an idea is going to pop in?

It’s completely random and it all depends on whether my prescription’s run out [laughs].

Prescription glasses, you mean.

Of course, of course! It depends on a lot of things. Sometimes it depends on the weather. Lots of people ask me how I write these songs and I tell you, I find it a lot easier to write these songs than I do to write normal songs because normal songs have to mean something – these don’t have to mean anything, and you can write about anything, you can make up anything you want. You can even make up words that sound funny. So I never find much pressure in writing these songs. But I do like there to be a strong meaning – at least a message that one person in the world, whether he be a garbo in Kazakhstan, something that someone can latch on to.

The fact that you can have more fun with these songs means that you can play with language more, which would be part of the fun.

Absolutely. And I have a lot of influences from my life, and I like to incorporate these people that have major influence in my life. On this album Kevin Bennett and Lee Kernaghan both get mentions.

Well, Lee and Kevin are both big presences in Australian country music.

Absolutely. Kevin just recently got nominated for 400 Golden Guitars. I was really excited for him and I was there at the party, at the nominations. I went            up to him and said, ‘I’m really thrilled for your nominations – you must be too’, and he said, ‘I heard on the grapevine that Buddy Goode has mentioned me in a song’, and I said, ‘Yes, he has’, and he said, ‘Well, that’s much more important than the six nominations I got.’ [laughs]

[Laughs] It would be pretty special to be immortalised in a song! Now – as you mentioned the Christmas album, I do have a related question: what is on your Santa list this year?

That’s a good question.

And have you been naughty or nice? That’s the next question.

Oh, I’m always naughty.

I figured that would be the answer.

Well, you have to be naughty to be nice. Because if you’re not naughty you don’t get anything out of life and if you don’t get anything out of life you can’t be nice to anybody.

Words to live by.

And my Santa list … to be honest, a Golden Guitar nomination is high priority, because I feel like the ARIA has embraced me for many years but I feel that the Golden Guitars haven’t quite embraced Buddy Goode, considering that’s where he started – his first gig was at the TRECC in Tamworth. I opened for Adam Brand, I did three songs. My very first song was an instrumental – it was ‘The Magnificent Seven’ played on the bottle with wooden spoons.

Do you remember what you wore?

Yeah – I had a white jacket on, and a white skivvy, and blue jeans tucked into wonderful white cowboy boots, snakeskin leather. No one remembers that – the gig was with Adam Brand and Michael Spibey from the Badloves, and James Blundell and Buddy Goode. That was the very first gig. I only had one song out at the time – it was before I got signed to ABC – and I walked out on stage and did ‘The Magnificent Seven’ with the bottles, then I performed my one song, then I think I finished with ‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’ and walked off. [laughs] So I’d love to be embraced by the Golden Guitar awards but I can’t seem to get a look-in. Maybe I’ll have to do a duet with Kasey Chambers.

Or maybe give Adam Brand an alter ego and you two can duet –they love a duet at the Golden Guitars.

[Laughs] They do. Well, we’ll see what happens.

Before I wrap up I will ask you about Tamworth – do you have a show or shows?

I have the one big show on the 25^th of January at the Diggers Showroom at 7 p.m. I’ll be doing the charity event, Country Turns Pink, as well on the Saturday night where I’ll be introducing special guests to perform a song with me. And a few little bits.

And I imagine you’ll have special guests at that Diggers show too.

Last year I had Adam Brand and Seleen McAllister. Adam and I did a wonderful version of ‘Shaddap Your Face’ just for Adam to get in touch with his Italian origin. This year there is a surprise but I’m not going to announce it until the week out.

More Rubbish is flooding your neighbourhood on 16 December, courtesy of ABC Music. You can order it here or buy it on iTunes.

Buddy Goode is on Facebook.

           

Have a Buddy Goode Christmas

Your Christmas will not be complete this year - or any year hereafter - without the dulcet tones of country superstar Buddy Goode and his new album, It's a Buddy Goode Christmas, coming through your hi-fi stereo system. With tracks such as 'Cheeses', 'Yellow Snow', 'Joseph the Chippy' 'A New Front Bum', 'She Pulls My Bonbon' and 'The Gingerbread Man', it's an instant classic [warning: those with religious sensitivities may not wish to read further].

With the release of this new LP Buddy is in high demand, but I was able to steal him away from the eggnog for a conversation about his new album, Christmas in general, and his search for love - or, at least, for the next Mrs Goode.

What does Christmas mean to Buddy Goode?

Christmas is about tinsel. It’s about mistletoe. It’s about puddin’. It’s about turkey. It’s about children. And it’s about gettin’ together with people you never see.

Are there people you never see who you’re looking forward to seeing at Christmas – or not?

Well, I’m actually not seeing anyone, so it’s gonna be a great Christmas. So I won’t be seeing anyone. It’s just me. I won’t be going anywhere. I’m just going to sit at home and listen to my Christmas album about a dozen times with a Christmas hat on. That’s my Christmas Day.

How is it possible, though, that one of the most popular men in country music is going to spend Christmas Day alone?

It’s a time to reflect, ya know? And I think the best way to be able to reflect on things, on your life and past loves, past conquests, is to spend that moment on your own. I think Christmas Day’s a special time to do that because everyone’s so caught up doin’ what they’re doin’ and goin’ where they’ve gotta go and bein’ a whole bunch of places, givin’ presents they don’t necessarily want to, to people they don’t want to to. So I think it’s the best day to sit at home, watch King of Kings, have a glass of Maison and just reflect.

Can you restrict yourself to just a glass?

It’s hard to get a case of Passion Pop these days so I’m going to limit myself to the one bottle of Maison.

Have you ever dressed up as Santa?

I did. I did. Once upon a time when I was just sixteen, at my local Baptist Church, the Fourteenth Chapter of the Baptists of Pennsylvania, and I was in the church choir, and what we did every Christmas Eve, we’d gather at the church – the whole community would come together – and we’d form a live nativity scene. One year I lost my Joseph outfit and I had to wear my Santa Claus outfit. It wasn’t quite appropriate but it was better than wearing a Hawaiian shirt. I thought it was the closest thing I could get. It was either go as a Christmas Elf or I could go as Santa, so I went as Santa. And no one seemed to notice.

Did the story of Joseph the Chippy inspire you either to become a chippy or become the father of the Messiah?

My attachment to that song is very dear. I have an affinity with chippies, labourers, and of course Joseph was the original chippy, the most famous carpenter of them all. In the song ‘Joseph the Chippy’, I was watching a documentary on Youtube one night – so it obviously has to be true – but the Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to Joseph and they went into it in great detail [in the documentary]. And I watched that before I watched an episode of Air Crash Investigations, so I may have got my wires crossed. Maybe some of the information got a little bit twisted. But I’m pretty sure it’s accurate.

I tend to think all of your songs are factually accurate. It’s a policy I’ve had for a while.

Well it’s as factually accurate as the Bible. And I’ve read the Bible from back to front, because I like knowing how it ends. I can’t handle the excitement so I like to know what’s going to happen before it happens.

If Christmas is all about cheeses, what happens if you could only pick one cheese – which cheese would it be?

Blue vein. A big chunk of blue vein always goes down well at my house.

Would you like to narrow that down – Stilton? Roquefort? Gorgonzola?

All the varieties. And the smellier the better.  Washed down with a bottle of Maison and a packet of Ritz crackers.

And also, one would imagine, accompanied by some gingerbread – because the Gingerbread Man may come around?

The Gingerbread Man, Bill, he very rarely brought gingerbread – it was one of the things he probably felt funny about bringing because of his heritage. He used to bring around lots of different things.

Does he still bring presents to his special ginger children-friends?

It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any time in the neighbourhood. I occasionally get a postcard from Aunt Siobhan. And evidently Bill’s still gettin’ around there. Every week – every Monday morning – he’s still delivering his bread and his French stick – his baguette. He’s still giving a few ladies in the neighbourhood the odd baguette. I think these days he’s part-timin’ too as the Neighbourhood Watch guy. He’s like a safe haven for kids after school. Especially the ones with ginger hair.

As you probably don’t want a new front bum for Christmas yourself, what’s on your wish list for Santa?

I’m after companionship this year. I want to spend twelve months looking for the next Mrs Goode. So I’m combing the country looking for a partner in life, someone who’s prepared to endure the touring schedule and recording schedule of an international superstar. But also somebody who wants to share all the good things in life – in summertime the beach, the sand, the beautiful holidays, the candlelit dinners, and in winter the beach, the sand, the beautiful candlelit dinners and the snow.

I would think with your international touring schedule, it would be the eternal summer – when it’s winter in Australia you could be touring where it’s summer. So the future Mrs Goode could indeed be enjoying beachtime, summetime, even in wintertime.

Exactly. She’s gotta be flexible, like Nadia Comaneci, ya know. She’s gotta be flexible and adapt to anything that Buddy Goode’s up to. Of course she’s gotta be independent too. She’s gotta know what she wants in life – as long as I’m on top of that list.

This is your opportunity to put out a detailed personal ad for the future Mrs Goode, so are there are any other attributes you’d like her to have?

I like most of it to be real, you know what I mean. Not fussy which parts aren’t, but at least 90 per cent of what God gave her, and the other 10 per cent I’m flexible. But I need someone with a good, strong mind, someone who’d love to play Sudoku or someone who’s intelligent enough to answer at least one question in Glenn A Baker’s Rock Academy trivia game.

I think it’s likely, as you tour around, that you’ll find someone with those attributes. So 2014 is looking good for Buddy Goode.

I’m hoping. And especially as I tour the regional areas – that’s where I’m hoping to find the right Mrs Goode. Because I love country girls. Country girls seem to be able to offer a lot more than city girls. They’re not as fussy. They offer far more because they accept a whole lot less.

At what age did you get too big for Santa’s knee?

Never. Never too big for Santa’s knee. I wrote a song about it on my album but  the reason I did that is that it’s a protest song, like ‘Big Yellow Taxi’. It’s my Christmas protest song. No matter what age you are, you should be allowed to go to Grace Bros or David Jones or your local Westfield and be able to go up and sit on Santa’s knee no matter how big you are. We’re all kids at heart, and that never dies.

So will you be doing that this year?

I’ve done it at least a dozen times already. Per day. They see me comin’ and they’re reachin’ for that ‘Back in 10 Minutes’ sign, I tell ya.

And while you’re waiting for Santa to return, perhaps you’re eating some yellow snow … But it seems to me that you have not heard Frank Zappa’s song about not eating the yellow snow.

I have heard it. But when you write these songs about your own experiences in life, it’s amazing the people you don’t know personally who have had the same experiences. So who would have thought that me, standing out the back of my little hut up in the mountains, with all my friends, building a snowman made out of snow filled with urine, that Frank Zappa had the same experience when he was a kid.

Now, it’s an ambitious thing to release a Christmas album when so many have before, like Michael Bolton. But do you feel yours could sit alongside your more classic Christmas releases, like Johnny Mathis and Bing Crosby and Jim Nabors?

Certainly. I put mine right in there just above Johnny Mathis and just right below Jim Nabors, which is  a little bit of a worry. The classics, as we all know, are Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ and his other Christmas records. But the '80s was a good time for the Christmas album too – the Bros Christmas album; the Starship Christmas album. There’s always plenty. But it’s always funny how many people do these Christmas albums and they never get any recognition for them. None of the Christmas albums ever get nominated for Grammys or Golden Guitars, but I’m plannin’ to change that next year. I’m hopin’ that this Christmas album will certainly win me my second ARIA and my first Golden Guitar. And maybe a Grammy.

Well, your Christmas album would one of the few ever to feature original songs.

That’s a good point. There’s been a lot of controversy lately over Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey’s album Country Song Book. It’s a fabulous record. All those great songs that we’ve heard a million times. But I love it. When I was writing songs for my Christmas album I was kind of planning to do a few of the old classics, you know. But I just couldn’t do it. I thought I’d get in too much trouble. Once something’s been done so perfectly in the past, it’s not for Buddy Goode to go in there and do it better.

It's a Buddy Goode Christmas is out now from ABC Music. 

Interview: Buddy Goode (part II)

I had a good, long chat with good ol' boy Buddy Goode late last year, in preparation for his gigs at the 2013 Tamworth Country Music Festival, where he'll be playing at the Legends Bar, West Tamworth Leagues Club, from 21 to 27 January. The chat was so long, in fact, that it's being published in two parts. This is part II. Part I is here. And I'm still laughing because Buddy Goode is a seriously funny man (and musician).

Buddy's latest album is Unappropriate and it's available from wherever unappropriate country music may be found ...

Speaking of your CD, because, as I said, I jumped ahead to my last question so I’m going back to the earlier questions, I’m really curious as to why you would let ‘Back in the Bush’ be sung by someone other than you.

Well, you know, it’s not my song, you know?  I mean, that was Barry Sarkokov and the Sarkokov Brothers had formed the Doughwackers. I mean, you have to respect the heritage, you know, when people – you listen to country music radio or you read magazines and everybody’s always talking about Slim Dusty, the great Slim Dusty.  You know, for me, the Doughwackers, it’s the Doughwackers all the way.  You know, to me, they’ve created some of the most brilliant Australian bush country ballad music you’ve ever heard.  So it would be an insult, it would be a slap in the face for Buddy Goode to put that song on his album and not have the Doughwackers singing it.  I’m hoping that in the near future, Buddy Sarkokov and Sarkokov Brothers from the Doughwackers will be doing their own records.  Yeah.  Put that in print [laughs].

[Laughs] But does that mean you don’t endorse the sentiment of ‘Back in the Bush’, if you let someone else sing it?

No, I’m for the sentiment [laughs].  I wrote the song.  You know – no, to be honest with you, it didn’t suit Buddy Goode’s style, you know?  It’s not a kind of Buddy Goode kind of song, a little bit too much innuendo for that.  I’m a more serious artist.  So if you’re looking at that, respect it, you know?  That’s what I want.  I want – I need somebody to do my shows for me so I thought the Doughwackers might come along and do that and maybe they will in Tamworth.

Well, I will put that in print as well.  But you say not so much innuendo in your songs and I guess that that’s true, because you’re more straight down the line.  For example, the song title and the song ‘Granny’s Gettin’ Some’ sounds like a literal statement.  So I was wondering if that’s actually based on any family member in particular?

It certainly is – my great-grandma Goode.  She was a wonderful lady.  She was J. Edgar Hoover’s secretary for many years and we’ve learned a lot about life from her.  I remember when I was just a little boy, I remember she bought me a bike, she bought me this little bike, and she said, “Buddy, this is all yours.”  And I said, “Has it got a seat?”  And she said, “No, I couldn’t afford the seat.”  So I had to ride it standing up.  But it was a very important lesson in life and I learnt that from Grandma Goode and she was a wonderful woman.  But she was also a very flippant – a very, what would you say, free-spirited lady and that song came from some times of her free-spiritedness.  And she was always courting genial gentlemen.  So that song, that’s where that come from.  I was proud to put it in song and put it on my record.

So did you learn anything from your great-granny in that this inter‑generational –

I certainly did: date women younger than you.

[Laughs] You know, I don’t necessarily like to ask personal questions in these interviews but it’s highly probable that there will be some female fans in Tamworth, if not before, so any tips you can give them to attract your attention?

To attract my attention?  Just – if I can see breath coming out of their mouths, that’s all I need. Or if I can see slight movement in the chest from a heartbeat.  I tell you what, that’s all I need.  I think all women are lovely in their own way, even the fat ones.

So brunettes, blondes, redheads, they can all apply for the position of Buddy Goode’s girlfriend?

You know what?  I’m going through a bit of a phase at the moment.  I’m really attracted to Asian ladies with red hair.  You don’t see many of them and I guess that explains – I’m searching the world for one, you know, with a tattoo; with a tattoo and green eyes, yep, just like someone you’d see in a Japanese comic book.  Maybe that’s where it comes from.

And I think maybe there’s a website you can go to find that, I just don’t know what the name of that website is.

Maybe if I type in ‘Japanese lady, red hair, green eyes, tattoo’, it’ll come up straight up away.  There’ll be a whole plethora of photos of all the young ladies.  Who knows? 

And if she turns up in Tamworth, of course, you will have to seal the deal.

Where are you from?

I’m from Sydney.

Nice.  I was in the city last night.

Are you visiting from the Central Coast or you’re in Sydney as well?

I was just in Sydney last night.  I was – to be honest with you, I’m hanging out with Adam Brand today, my favourite country singer.  We’re preparing because we’re doing a show in Melbourne on Wednesday, that’s tomorrow. 

Yes, it is.

Just tomorrow.  Yeah.  So we’re just talking about how we’re going to do it and he’s just – I’m just giving him a few tips on how to put on a show, so hopefully that all works out.  So, yeah, I stayed the night in Sydney last night and I had dinner at the Hard Rock Café down at the Darling Harbour.  It was very nice.

And presumably, your photo would have been on the wall at the Hard Rock Café.

No.  You know, they have one of my suits, my old suits from ’64, up in the window and the funny thing is they didn’t know it was one of my suits but it was bought by Porter Wagner and Porter hadn’t worn it for years, you know?  Anyway, it ended up in Elvis’s wardrobe.  So I’m walking past this glass case last night and this young lady who I was with, she said to me, “Hey, Buddy, that looks like one of those suits from those photos I was looking at.”  And I had a close look at it and it had the BG and the gemstones all embroidered into it and I’m like, “My God, where did it come from?” and it’s done a full circle, through Porter Wagner, through Elvis, all the way – I don’t know where it went in between but it ended up in the Hard Rock Café in Darling Harbour in a showcase.  But they didn’t know.  And I told the lady.  I walked up to the lady at the counter and I said, “You know, that Elvis suit you’ve got in there?  That used to belong to me.  I’m Buddy Goode.”  And she looked at me and she went, “Really?”  So, yeah.

[Laughs] On the subject of your suits, of course, Gram Parsons had his suits made by a tailor called Nudie.

Yes, Nudie.  Yes.

I actually think Nudie would have been a good tailor for you.

I had some Nudie stuff back at the time I was living in Boston, I lived there for about a year because we were makin’ some underground blues record there. And what happened was, I was living in this great house and I had all my stuff still in storage, you know, all my great Nudie suits.  I had about 400 of them all personally made by and they were sitting there in boxes.  And I got home from work one day and my house burned down so all those great outfits have gone.  I’ve been trying to get some Nudie suits made, you know?  They’re certainly hard to get them these days, you know, especially when you ring up and say, “Can you make me a Nudie suit?” and they look at you and they go, “What the hell?  Like, you’ve already got one [laughs] you were born with it” – “That’s not what I mean.  Rhinestones and all that; rhinestones.”

Given that you had original Nudie suits and that one of your other suits made its way to Elvis, you’re a lot older than you look.

I know, I know.  You know, my age varies just like any professional, famous person.  You know, you walk up to Jennifer Aniston and say, “How old are you?”  She’s never going to give you the same answer.  You know, sure, hers ranges from between 40 to 50 but mine ranges from 30 to 70 but that’s – you know, that’s showbusiness.  Everybody lies about their age.  You know, I said to this lovely young lady the other day.  I said, “Ma’am, how old are you?”  She looked at me straight and I said, “I apologise.  It’s really rude to ask a woman her age.  How much do you weigh?”  Anyway, that’s another story.  Getting back to that, I think, you know, I mean, at least I’m using my real name, you know what I mean?  A lot of people change their name:  Elton John, you know?  Who’s the other one – Beccy Cole.  She’s not Beccy Cole.  Adam Brand.  Adam Brand’s got a different name, too.  You know, it’s showbusiness.  Don’t tell them your name, don’t tell them your age and certainly don’t give them your phone number.  Tex Perkins.

Well, yeah, Beccy Cole is Rebecca Cole so, you know, that’s a big change.

Yes, of course.  And Adam Brand, he used to be Neville Brand, you know?  I’m glad he changed that first name.

Given that you are so well preserved, I was wondering if it’s your younger companions who keep you young or do you have any beauty and health tips for your fans?

No.  See, many people don’t know this, too, but you see those – in those stores you can go in and you can put on a little mask and you can just breathe in pure oxygen?  I pioneered that back in Pennsylvania back in the late ’60s.  I said, you know, one time I fainted on the plane and I woke up in the arms of a beautiful hostess.  She had an oxygen tank on me and I felt like – you know, I sucked in that beautiful, pure oxygen for, like, 20 seconds and I felt like – you know what it’s like – I don’t know – being reincarnated.  So I thought there’s got to be something in this for everybody.  So I devised my own system where you pour pure oxygen into people, whether we injected into their veins or we just – sometimes we’d burn it on a spoon and inject it and we did it all different ways, you know?  We’d smoke it, we’d make capsules out of it and take them and used to melt down the oxygen and we used to put it on little pieces of paper and we’d put them on our tongue and all different ways of taking this oxygen.  And they were some great days in the ’60s, you know?  So I kind of pioneered that and I think that’s what’s kept me up, it’s all that oxygen floating through my system.

It seems like Pennsylvania was a very fertile creative place and time for you.  Do you feel that your creativity has been enhanced or thwarted a bit by moving to the ’70s?

I’m listening but I’ve got a helicopter flying over my head and I can’t hear a thing.  Just wait for it.  It’s going.  Where is it?  Okay.  Oh my God, it’s the guy from Skippy.  Okay.

Which one and what shirt is he wearing?

It’s Tony Bonner.  From here he’s got his khaki one on. We used to get Skippy back in the States.  We used to watch Skippy.  We loved Skippy.  Everybody used to talk about Skippy.  And when I first moved here, I was expecting to see Skippies.  Everyone would have a Skippy in their backyard, you know, like, you know, tied up in a cage or something like we used to have with our bears back home? But, you know, it’s just very strange that I haven’t seen one kangaroo since I’ve been here.

Clearly you’re living in the wrong part of the Central Coast.

Maybe I am.  I do live on the back of a reserve.  Maybe there’s some kangaroos in there or some wildebeests.  Maybe they’re in there because occasionally I let my dogs out at night when I hear some noise down there so they forage in there and I hear them growling and I hear them ripping stuff to pieces but, I don’t know, maybe there are kangaroos.

And if we say that music calms the savage beast then maybe if the beast isn’t originally savage, the music that you’re playing from your home, it’s not really working on the animals.

You’ve always going to release the beast.  In any part of life – you know, I don’t know much about cricket but I was watching that Australian captain, Michael Clarke, hit some balls before.  Man, he was releasing the beast.  And I was thinking to myself, you know, all famous people who’ve reached the top of their tree, at one time in their life, they released the beast.  You know what I’m talking about.  I think people who choose to keep that beast hidden inside them, perhaps they don’t get very far in life.  You just need to let it out, let it hang out, let it just run its course.

So given that releasing the beast is a good idea, probably, from a creative point of view, from a performance point of view, is it difficult to control the beast when you’re on stage?

I don’t want to control the beast, you know?  It’s like I suppose if you have a chocolate factory, right, and you make chocolate and people come to the shop to buy the chocolate because they love to taste the chocolate when they want, they crave that chocolate, you know?  And they come in droves to buy that chocolate, you know?  So I go out there on stage and I know that people want the beast.  So for me to keep the beast hidden inside would be detrimental to everything I’ve told to my fans.

Do you give the beast its own name?  Like, is it a shadow‑self, is it an alter-ego?

I’ve got two beasts, B1 and B2, and they get released at different times depending on the ethnicity of the crowd.

[Laughs] Well, it’s always good to read your audience and stagecraft is hard to learn, so when you first started performing, was it just instinctual for you or did you find you had to learn how to please an audience?

Well, yeah, I think a lot of it’s just natural.  Just anyone can lie – if you know your strengths, all the things that come naturally to you, you know?  The things that make you successful, however, are the things you attain by purchasing them with money.

[Laughs].

So you can’t – like, you can go and sing for somebody and they might think you’re a good singer and everything like that, but unless you pour a million dollars into your career, no one’s ever going to know who you are.  That’s the way it is.  Or you can get on one of those shows like The Voice or X-Factor or something like that where, you know, I think it’s – they’re great shows because everybody loves to watch singers on TV that yesterday were singing for their grandmas at a barbecue and now they’re on national television singing.  I always like to see that; I like to encourage people like that.  And around the water cooler on Monday morning when everyone says, “Did you see that girl sing last night on X-Factor?  Wasn’t she just awesome?  She was almost as good as John Farnham, compared to the other six people who sang next to her.  I love it.”  It’s very encouraging. It’s like giving someone a ribbon for coming eighth.  I love it.

As I’m drawing to the end of my allotted time, I’m going to ask you one last question.  In the ideal Buddy Goode universe, is world domination your goal?  Do you want to touch the hearts and other body parts of everyone in Australia or are you happy with the way things are, just being in the country music community and the general pop and rock community not knowing who you are yet?

Well, I’ll be honest with you, you can’t set your sights with world domination, you know?  Crazy people like Hitler did that.  But, to me, it’s like foreplay.  When you’re making love to a lady, you like to start with the toes, work your way up – and I won’t go through the details, I think you understand, but at the moment I’m in Australia so we kind of like make Australia like, you know, about in the middle of the body somewhere.  And I’m doing my best but it don’t necessarily mean that I’m going all the way.  You know what I’m saying?  You can’t set your sights on world domination.  You’ve just got to take it one little area at a time and see how far you can get.

Well, it seems as though you’re well on your way to taking one little area at a time.  I thought you were going to tell me that Australia was the kneecaps, but I was wrong.  So I think that you’re progressing well up the human body of world domination or wherever I’m going with that metaphor.

[Laughs] The knees?  You know, I don’t want any country to be the knees.  The knees are just nothing.  Have you ever heard someone say, “Man, I love that girl.  She’s got the best looking knees I’ve ever seen.”  [Laughs]. They’re kind of like, you know, if you get in trouble with someone you owe money, too, that’s the first thing they take out.  So the knees are kind of like not important.  They’re kind of like eyelashes, you know?

[Laughs] That’s fair enough but I think I’d better leave it there so you can go back to Adam Brand and continue your preparations for your gig tomorrow.  So thank you.

I can go back to having my hangover in peace.  Thank you, Sophie.

www.buddygoode.com

Interview: Buddy Goode (part I)

Buddy Goode is the risqué troubadour of Australian country music - our very own piece of Pennsylvania in a jumpsuit, spreading joy and love (or some form of it) around the countryside. Ahead of his run of shows at Tamworth 2013, I got to talk to the man - the legend - that is Buddy Goode. And my cheeks are still sore from laughing so much. Buddy's latest album is Unappropriate. Tamworth show dates are at the bottom of this post.

I’ve got to say, I’ve been nervous and excited about interviewing you because I’ve been listening to your album and I’m not quite sure what to expect.

Well, okay. 

 [Laughs] I’m going to ask you, first of all, who is Buddy Goode as a man and as a musician?

Well, I guess the musician maketh the man, that’s what I like to say.  You know, all those years of toil behind a guitar and piano writing songs and everything has made me the man I am, because it makes me think about my life in great detail. I still remember all the things that I did as a child, all the things I did as an adolescent when I started being affected with the opposite sex. 

 [Laughs].

And, of course, in my later years, that I’m in now – my mid to late years, you know, same thing, you know – so all those times all come together and they make the man that’s Buddy Goode.

So there is no man without the music.  Is that what you’re saying?

There’s no man without the music but I tell you what, I’m going to use that and I’m going to use that on my posters.  There’s no man without the music.  I love it [laughs].

[Laughs] it’s just all music.  Your DNA is semi-quavers and crotchets and all sorts of things.

You know, you don’t even have to interview me.  You can write it yourself. [Laughs] You’re expressing what I’m thinking.

 [Laughs] Well, look, you’re clearly a man of the world, Buddy.  You’re working in Australia but you’re from North America.  So given that you are a man of the world, what on earth made you choose country music?

What do – you know what, I’ve always said – I said this to Rod Stewart once, you know, “After making all those great pop records, why did you go and do all those standard ballad, swing records?” And he looked at me and he said, “I’m sorry? Who are you?” I’ll never forget that moment. It made me think about my past and why I chose country music and my thing, you know?  My daddy, my daddy Buddy Senior, he loved all the great performers like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and, of course, everybody loves Willie and he loved Willie so much and so I guess that’s where I get it from. The old 45s we used to have, there was an artist – the most famous artist to come out of Pennsylvania state where I was raised was a guy called Chuck Newton. And Chuck Newton – not many people know who Chuck Newton was but he had – one of his great songs was – I remember growing up with it, I’ll never forget – it was called ‘Take A Break from Under the Car, Dad, your Son’s Come Home with the Jack’.

[Laughs].

One of my favourite songs I ever heard. And Chuck Newton, that was his name.  You might want to look him up.  He was my inspiration.

Is he a relative of Wayne Newton?

[Laughs] No, but he sang really high pitched, too.  He was kind of like the country choir boy.

Because I can see that there could be a double act in Vegas but perhaps Chuck has now left this world, I don’t know.

No, I think he’s still – I think he’s about 108, he just turned 108.

So you said that you were raised in Pennsylvania. Your accent now sounds a little more Deep South, so has there been some movement in the Buddy Goode world from the north of the United States to the south?

There’s been plenty of movement downstairs for sure. There’s always been. And I must admit that – yeah, I know I – to be honest with you, it’s really hard to do a Pennsylvanian accent [laughs]. Ever since I was a young kid, I could never quite speak the way all my relatives spoke. For some reason, I came out talking like this. I guess it’s all those years singin’ and listenin’ to all those great people that come from down south.

Well, that’s absolutely true.  I mean, if your life is dedicated to Willie, that’s going to happen.

There’s plenty of stuff downstairs, Willie, plenty of stuff.  God, I’m choking on something.

[Laughs] So when you set out to make an album, Buddy – I’m sensing that with your albums there are certain themes that come to the fore.  So I’m just wondering how hard it is to settle on a theme for an album.

The themes?  It just comes natural, you know?  I don’t really set out with any specific things in mind.  I must admit though, I remember talking to Meat Loaf once many years ago when he just brought out the Bat Out of Hell record and I said something similar to him.  I said, “Where do you get these ideas, these great ideas?”  And he told me his mentor, Jim Steinman, who wrote all those great songs for that record, came up with the whole concept, the whole thing, you know?  So it got me thinking I needed my own mentor.  I needed somebody, my own musical direction.  So I gave Burt Bacharach a call and he said, “You know, the best thing, Buddy, you can do is just write from the heart”, you know what I mean?  He said, “Just think about it.”  He said – because I remember him saying to me – he said, “The day I sat down and wrote a song, you know, ‘What the world needs now is love, sweet love’, I thought to myself, you know, this is coming straight from the depths of my soul.”  So I thought, you know, I can do that, too.  And that’s how I come up with the song ‘Jimmy Likes Dick’.

[Laughs] I’m really curious as to why you would choose Burt Bacharach, because I would have thought that he was not quite in your genre.

He was my neighbour at the time, so I just leaned over the fence when he was making some barbecue.

I don’t know if that was during the time when he was married to Carole Bayer-Sager, because I think they’re now …

The second time he was married to her, yeah.  Yeah.  He was married to her twice.  No-one  knows that.  So the first time they were quite young, and they had three kids and nobody knows about the kids either.  Then they split up because she was having an affair with what’s his name, the actor, Ryan O’Neal.  And so, anyway, after that, it was like a love triangle: Carole Bayer‑Sager, Ryan O’Neal and Carly Simon, so the three of them were in a love triangle.  Nobody knows about this. And the song ‘You’re So Vain’ was actually written about Burt Bacharach.

All this time I thought it was about Warren Beatty.

Exactly right.  Nobody knows that.  It’s amazing.

[Laughs].

Anyway.  We could talk all day about this kind of crap [laughs].

Yeah, yeah, I could as well.  But I’m curious, then, given Pennsylvania, mining country, coal country, I can understand why you’d want to move to Australia, where it’s a bit warmer and we still have coal mining but it’s a quite different kind of lifestyle.  So what first brought you down under?

Well, it did have a lot to do with coal, you know?  It was definitely the coal.  My great, great grand-daddy, Buddy Senior – he was a coal miner and he used to drive the trucks, you know, in and out of the coal – he’d drive a truck into the mine and then he’d go down there, he’d dig it all out and he’d put it on the truck and then he’d drive the truck out of there.  He did the whole thing, you know?  So when I was lookin’ for somewhere to come, Keith Urban said, “You’ve got to move to Australia, Buddy.  You’re going to love it down there.”  So I was thinking to myself, well, you know, where am I going to live if I come down there?  I got a map out and the first place – the first place I found was Newcastle.

[Laughs].

I thought, Newcastle.  That looks like a cool city, you know?  That’s where they dig coal out of there.  So I went to Newcastle and I didn’t like it so I headed over to the Central Coast, that’s where I am now [laughs].

So you’re on the Central Coast now?

There’s no coal there.  It’s all about beach.  I love the beach.  I love swimmin’, I love scuba divin’, I love paddle boardin’, I love wind surfin’, I love hang glidin’ and I don’t mind getting the odd melanoma.

[Laughs] Well, you’ve moved to the right country for that.

Slip, slop, slap’s what they say here.

I’ve got to say, though, with the idea of you living on the Central Coast, your hair looks like it needs a lot of care because it’s a lustrous mane.  You also tend to wear the long-sleeved jumpsuit, which is not exactly beach friendly.  So is there a beach side of Buddy that his fans have yet to see?

Sophie, there certainly is.  Nobody has ever seen me in my beach attire but I’m not one of those – you know, I’m still livin’ in the 70s, darlin’.  I don’t go for the full body suit, or wetsuit or, you know, those cover-up shirts with the hat with the thing floppin’ down over the back of your neck.  I’m pretty much in a G-string, lettin’ it all out there because, you know what, I’ve always thought, you know, when you’re gettin’ a tan, the last thing you want is your butt cheeks to be white.  So if I can’t get that G-string – and usually I put it on backwards because it fits better – but if I don’t have the G-string, I just get the Speedo and I’ll crank it, crank it straight up my crack just like they see on Bondi Rescue.  The boys do that.  I got it from there.  We used to see that on TV over in the States, you know?  You’d watch – not Baywatch, but we’d see Australian, you know, lifesaving programs, you know, from the ’70s and they’d be there, you know, with their thing cranked right up their crack and doing the thing with the rope on top of their head, all that sort of stuff.  It was fabulous.  So I mould myself on a little bit of David Hasselhoff and a little bit of them.

Well, you can’t hassle the Hoff, that’s for sure, and there’s a lot to admire about the Hoff.

I love the Hoff.  You know, I must admit, I was good friends with him up until the time he sang on top of the Berlin Wall when they were bringing it down.  He just sang out of tune that night.  I lost a lot of respect for him.

[Laughs] So clearly you’re not an artist then who goes into the studio and has to have autotune applied – you sing in tune.

No autotune.  No, we don’t use autotune in the studio.  We normally use it live. The thing is, you know, in the studio, it’s just – it’s just a cheap cop-out, it’s the cheap way out, you know?  But definitely live, yeah, why not?  And I do a lot of dancing and stuff.  You know, you see people like Madonna and all those kind of cats, when they’re doing a lot of dancing and singing, they sing out of tune, you know, and they get out of breath.  So pretty much, because of all the dancing and stuff that I do with all my props and stuff and just entertaining the general public, you know, it was a lot of pressure on me and the last thing I want to do is get bad notes so I pretty much mime live.

Well, this actually brings me – this was going to be my last question but I’ll jump ahead to it, because you’ve raised live performance.  And I know that you have a whole lot of dates in Tamworth in January so I was wondering what your Tamworth audience can expect from the Buddy Goode live experience?

Well, I’ll be there –

[Laughs].

[Laughs] And it’s going to be fun.  I tell you what, last year I went to my first show in Tamworth at the Legends Bar and it was so successful they’ve asked me to do a couple this year, so I can’t wait to go there to Tamworth and – what was the question again? 

What can they expect from the show – is it going to be you and a guitar or do you have a band?

A lot of – just colour, all I’ll say is colour; musical colour, visual colour and maybe a little bit of skin colour.

Depending on the colour of your Speedos or your G-string.

Exactly right.  And I might just play that live.  Who knows what’s going to happen but it’s going to be fun, it’s especially going to be fun if people turn up.

If you’re not wearing the G-string or the Speedo on stage, how do you cope in the Tamworth heat with the jumpsuit?

Well, you know, you just acclimatise to stuff like that.  I remember once I spent about six months living in Alaska.  It’s hard walking around Alaska, you know, with your Speedos on, too, but you just acclimatise.  You can see an English gentleman, a British gentleman, you know, out here in the Australian sun, you know, and he’s like, you know, walkin’ down the street, he’s got a red face and he’s sweatin’.  I look at that, every time I say to them, “You know, you’re a fool.  You shouldn’t come down to this hemisphere.  You should stay out of it.”  But people like me, we’ve learned to acclimatise like the alligators.

You mean alligators acclimatise into Australia?

Exactly.

You mean, they acclimatised and became crocodiles?

Exactly right.

[Laughs] It sounds like hopefully your performance in Tamworth will have less teeth than that but perhaps, you know, smoother skin.

Plenty of teeth.  I love plenty of teeth.  I’m proud of my teeth.  I’ve taken great care of my teeth over the years. You know, I brush at least once a week so I’m proud to say that I like to display them in all my photos and I like to smile.  So I guess when people are looking at me on stage, they’re going to hear some nice tunes, they’re going to see some nice action, they’re going to see some nice moves, they’re going to see some nice clothes but they’re going to see a nice smile.

We can see your smile on your CD insert because it’s proudly displayed.

That’s right, ma’am.

 Buddy Goode at Tamworth 2013: 21 to 27 January, Legends Bar, West Tamworth Leagues Club 

 www.buddygoode.com