He’s been entertaining crowds worldwide now for over 32 years and his songs have become something of legend, and no there’s no sign of stopping for Australia’s own KEVIN BLOODY WILSON. Kevin has been hard at his hobby – writing material for an upcoming album, hitting the road with the family and making people laugh and cringe at his comedic genius. By CHRIS CONDOLEON
Kevin rounded out last year with a run of shows in WA and Victoria and has just recently completed a run through South Australia and a handful of dates in NSW on what is (thanks to public demand) the ‘Second of the Final Farewell Tours…Perhaps’.
“The truth is that the first one was called ‘The First of the Final Farewell Tours…Perhaps’, knowing full well that there’d always be a second and a third. As long as I’m upright I’ll continue to do it – there’s no finish line when you’re in this industry you know; you don’t see painters retire and say ‘okay well I’m never going to paint again’. It’s the same with people like me; I retired 32 years ago when I first started doing it.”
It’s never been more than a hobby for Kevin who started doing this for his mates around the footy clubs and cricket clubs in his hometown, and he never thought for a minute that it would turn into a career.
“You know you hear all these motivational speakers say things like ‘find a job that you like doing and you’ll never work another day in your life’; well it’s absolutely true, but I’ve never considered it a job. You know every aspect of what I do; the recording process, the writing – I particularly love that because I’ll be sitting in a room by myself writing and occasionally a passer-by might stick their head in and see me by myself punching a hole in the air, and straight away you know that you’ve got that line and you think ‘yes that’s the one I was looking for!’.”
The writing never stops for Kevin and at the moment it’s going “exceedingly well!”.
“I’ve probably narrowed it down to 15/16 songs now for the next album and I’ve been in the recording studio to put down what we call guide vocals, so once they polish them up a little bit, to polish the turd as they say, I’ll listen to them again and narrow them down to 12. I need to make sure people don’t feel like they’re getting short-changed, although 12 of my songs at any given time is enough I reckon.”
The new material of course will be getting road-tested and Kevin assures us that we will be hearing at least five of these new gems in his upcoming shows. Though of course, road-testing does start with the mates and Kevin explains that the first person to hear all his songs is his wife – “if she just screws her face up the right way then I know I’m on to something.”
It’s not just Kevin’s wife though that plays an integral part in his song writing, but his daughter also, and the apple certainly doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Jenny Talia from Australia is doing exceptionally well in her own musical comedy act. Jenny, a great country singer in her own right, basically turned to comedy as the kind of material she was getting requests for the most.
“She was doing these songs backstage with her girlfriends in Nashville and they said you should record some of these songs, and it very much mirrors the way in which my career got started – me mates telling me ‘you should record some of them songs’, so she did and she had 4 albums out in country music but within 6 months of releasing her comedy ones she’s outsold all 4 of them, so that’s a pretty good indication that you should look at it seriously.”
With Jenny now having returned to the States though, Kevin looks ahead to a busy year with his upcoming run of dates here at home and then a close to sold out 6-week run in the U.K. in November, only to return to Scotland and Ireland this time next year. Somewhere in the middle of all that is a 2-week run in the U.S., where Kevin explains that you do have to phrase things a little bit differently sometimes.
“Sometimes you just have to explain that what is one thing over there is something completely different over here; for example a new song of mine ‘Old Roy The Rooter’ – a root in Australia is not the same as it is in America. You know if you’re rooting in America it means you’re supporting a team or digging a hole in the ground, whereas over here of course it’s completely different.”
For Kevin ‘old Roy the rooter’ was in fact his mate’s late father-in-law, someone Kevin had a real connection with, and someone he called ‘old Roy the rooter’ – “Hung like a fucking thoroughbred in his pimped out mobility scooter”.
So when can we expect to hear the new album? “I’m hoping in the next couple of months I’ll have it finished. I’m not in a hurry; once I write the songs we get straight in and get ‘em done.”
19/05/16 – Dapto Leagues Club, DAPTO NSW
20/05/16 – Bomaderry RSL, BOMADERRY NSW
21/05/16 – Bateman’s Bay Soldiers Club, BATEMAN’S BAY NSW
22/05/16 – Goulburn Soldiers Club, GOULBURN NSW
24/05/16 – Cootamundra Ex Services Club, COOTAMUNDRA NSW
25/05/16 – Yass Soldiers Club, YASS NSW
26/05/16 – Hellenic Club, WODEN ACT
27/05/16 – Tumut District RSL, TUMUT NSW
28/05/16 – Goulburn Valley Hotel, SHEPPARTON VIC
9/08/16 – Burnie Arts & Convention Centre, BURNIE TAS
12/08/16 – Country Club Showroom, LAUNCESTON TAS
13/08/16 – Wrest Point Casino, HOBART TAS
18/08/16 – Tabcorp Park, MELTON VIC
28/10/16 – Crown Casino, PERTH WA
29/10/16 – Crown Casino, PERTH WA
Funny fucker