A third of the way through his longest Australian tour of all time, LEE KERNAGHAN spoke to LOUISA BULLEY last week, looking back on his 20 years in the music industry, and continuing forward with his new album Beautiful Noise, and an industry-wide tribute to his idol Slim Dusty.
So you’ve been touring your new album Beautiful Noise since March, how are you feeling that it’s being received around the country?
Yeah, it’s the biggest tour I’ve ever taken out on the road, it’s actually 18 months long! Look, it’s been awesome. We’ve had a heap of sell-out shows and the album is currently the number one album on the Australian charts across all genres! So I’m really grateful to everybody out there for the support.
You’ve been touring this album with Tasmanian band The Wolfe Brothers, how did that collaboration come about?
You know, The Wolfe Brothers exploded onto our TV screens last year when they got into the finals of Australia’s Got Talent, and that’s when I spotted them. And I got to host the show and all of that and I got to jam with the guys and I couldn’t believe how skilful they were as musicians, as well as being incredible entertainers.
So touring with them is an enjoyable experience?
Oh yeah, it’s a high energy, high octane experience, so every gig is kind of like the annual general meeting of the outback club with everyone coming in from all over the place and we just let it rip!
So an 18 month tour, touring must be something that you enjoy?
Yeah, we’ve got a great crew out there, it’s like an extended family. We have a great time, the boys brew their own whiskey, they call it moonshine, made in Tasmania. And we always have a shot of that before we hit the stage. Usually the craziest things happen to The Wolfe Brothers when I’m not around to look after them though!
Tomorrow night is a special one, with a mix of different artists coming together to celebrate the life of Slim Dusty on what would have been Slim’s 86th birthday.
Yeah, there are a whole lot of musicians, identities and entertainers all sort of getting behind this industry-led initiative to make June 13 National Slim Dusty Day, so we’ve got a show at Rooty Hill RSL tomorrow night to come together and fly the flag for that initiative.
This is clearly something that’s very close to your heart, with one of the songs on Beautiful Noise, ‘Flying With The King’ standing as a tribute to Slim as well. How did this tribute come together?
Well, it’s been 10 years since Slim passed away, and we wanted to mark the occasion with a big night and a big show, and that’s pretty well where it came from.
You must enjoy this kind of collaboration with other artists, that seems to be a big theme in country music in Australia and just in your career in general?
Oh yeah, I’ve recorded a lot of duets over my career and I really enjoy the idea of finding out what happens when you mix your musical ideas with those of other people out there that you love and respect.
I guess it can act as a challenge to your own music-making as well, to step up and try something different with someone new?
Well you know, Louisa, the last thing I wanna do is stand still and say ‘well that’s it, this worked for me five or 10 years ago so that’s all I have to do.’ I’m always looking for the next way and for new interesting ways to make music and write songs, you know? I wanna keep it exciting for the people who are coming out to the shows, but also I wanna make it exciting and interesting for me to.
Is there any one collaboration that you’ve been a part of that stands out to you as maybe something that really did challenge you or changed the way that you made music along the way?
There’s been a lot of them, I’m just trying to think! One that was truly life-changing was the duet I did with Slim Dusty on my Three Chain Road album, ‘Leave Him In The Longyard.’ And up until that recording I was just some kid from Albury that no one had heard of really, and that really helped to launch my career.
There’s clearly a collective love for Slim in the industry and across the country in general, what is it about Slim’s career that inspires you?
Well the longevity, haha? It was almost 70 years of music-making, well yeah, 60 years of making music, and Slim, I see him as the link between Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson and the modern era. So you know, he’s important to Australian music, and that can be really underestimated. I don’t know what it would be like today without him having had that hand in the music industry.
The story behind ‘Flying With The King’ sounds pretty amazing. When I was reading about it I was thinking, ‘this is so dreamlike,’ it’s the kind of meeting that you could only wish to have with your idol!
Yeah, it’s kind of surreal looking back at it now, but it happened! And the memories of that flight will stay with me and live in my heart for the rest of my life. I’ve been carrying the feeling around with me for years, and on the new album I’ve finally been able to turn those thoughts and feelings into a song, ‘Flying With The King’. Everytime I hear that song, and I’ve heard it hundreds of times now, I just get goosebumps up and down my arms thinking about it.
How old were you when you met him?
Ahh, the first time I met Slim I would’ve just been a teenager and it was through that flight that I got to know him a lot more. And later on I went to his 70th birthday party and yeah, he just meant a lot to me.
Yeah, looking through the media release for this Slim Dusty show, it’s lovely seeing the quotes from different personalities that clearly hold that same respect for Slim.
Yeah, there’s a great quote in there from Keith and Nicole. All the way through he’s just touched all of our lives and the lives of so many Australians. He was like part of the family to many of us, because we all grew up listening to his music.
It’s funny that you use the word family, because it seems in Australia and in America as well, that the country music industry IS a real family, possibly more than other parts of the wider music industry?
Yeah, it’s a great industry. The Australian music industry in itself is a great industry too, and it needs to be nurtured and appreciated and I honestly believe there should be a lot more Australian music on radio, and I think it should be mandatory like it is in Canada. Because we are absolutely inundated with international acts in this market and if you look at the charts they’re totally dominated by international acts. You know, you’ve gotta nurture things to make them grow, and I think the Australian music industry is something we can be really proud of and it should be nurtured, the industry and the acts, to build it and make it bigger and better.
So it’s been 20 years now since the release of your first album, how do you think your experience in the music industry has changed since you started out? Or how you as an artist have changed?
Ahh, I think the PAs have gotten better haha, the light shows have definitely gotten better, and the crowds have gotten bigger thankfully! But yeah, it’s just a blast to be able to tour Australia and play the music that you love, and have people come out to see the show. I probably don’t party as hard as I used to in the 90s, because I wanna put on a good show, haha. Back then I kind of thought that any show could be my last show, so I’d just party hard, but these days, there’s still a lot of fun and drinking and playing up on the road, but I think that everybody has to be switched onto a pretty professional approach to what we’re doing. And for me that means looking after my voice, and keeping fit, you know, eating right, hitting the gym, haha.
Apart from the moonshine I guess?
Yeah well you know, we’ve gotta pace our sins somehow, so that’s how we do it.
So how far into the tour are you?
We’re about six months in at the moment, so yeah still about a year to go mate.
What’s gonna be keeping you going over the next 12 months then?
A supplement called ‘Xtend’ haha. And just a whole lot of love for what I do. I’m just looking forward to coming into town and rocking it out!