Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis
I play guitar, but I started off on the
piano. And I remember when I heard
Jerry Lee Lewis play Great Balls of Fire
- that changed my whole life. I just loved
the way that he rocked the piano and
I kind of inherited a little bit of that in
the way I play it. I love playing the piano
- I do a lot of songwriting on it. Boys from
the Bush was written on the piano at my
Mum and Dad’s house that I learnt to
play on when I was nine years old.
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)
by Big & Rich
If I am going to party, I want to party good.
Check it out! Definitely a party starter.
Where I Wanna Be by Lee Kernaghan
I am married – it will be 20 years this year.
There’s a song on my new album that
[my wife] Robby and I recorded as a duet.
Where I Wanna Be is autobiographical. It’s
her story and my story, and coming together
and knowing that you could be anywhere
in the world, in some of the greatest places
- a back road in Western Queensland or
walking along the Champs-Élysées in Paris
- but wherever that person is that you love,
that’s where you want to be.
S
inging catchy songs and spinning
a good yarn comes naturally to
37-time Golden Guitar winner
Lee Kernaghan.
The Australian country music icon can
be seen at the CMC studios doing just that
this month, as he performs tracks from his
15th studio album, Backroad Nation, plus
a few crowd-pleasers.
“It’s raw, real and acoustic,” he says of
the show, which is exclusive to the channel
and sees him team up with Tasmanian
country music act The Wolfe Brothers.
“It was completely unrehearsed – we
just let rip on the guitars and got stuck
into some of the classic tracks from over
the years, as well as some new songs.”
Kernaghan, who has sold in excess
of two million records since releasing
his debut solo album in 1992, continues
to find great subject matter while on the
road touring Australia.
“You never know where inspiration is
going to strike,” he explains. “Sometimes
it’s in the unlikeliest of places. I was signing
the tailgate of a bloke’s ute in Shepperton,
and I asked him what he did for a living.
He said, ‘Lee, I milk cows.’ And I instantly
knew that would be a song.
“I asked a young bloke who was
running a station up in the Pilbara in
Western Australia, ‘What do you do for
entertainment, being so isolated?’ And
he said, ‘We muster cattle 24/7 but when
the wet season comes, everything changes.
The rain comes down, the river comes
up and me and my missus turn off the
generators at the homestead and sit out
on the front verandah watching lightning.’
So, bang! It had to be a song on the album.”
Named Australian of the Year in 2008,
Kernaghan cites a wide range of music
as having an impact on his life. Here, he
shares five songs that have inspired him.
All My Rowdy Friends are Coming
Over Tonight by Hank Williams Jr
The reason I do country music is that
I fell in love with it when I was about
13 years old. It was Waylon Jennings
and Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr,
David Allan Coe – they were all outlaw
country singers that broke the Nashville
mould and rocked country music. I had
never heard anything like it before, and
it just made me want to do it. This song
by Hank Williams Jr was the soundtrack
to my younger years.
He Stopped Loving Her Today
by George Jones
I felt like I had won Gold Lotto the
day I discovered George Jones and
the album I Am What I Am, which
contained his smash-hit He Stopped
Loving Her Today. I think it is one of
the greatest country songs that has ever
been written. I was a real teen collector
of old valve radios – there is a romance
to that golden glow. As a kid, we didn’t
have the internet, so one way to connect
was the radio and scanning carefully
through the stations at night. I think that
was when I first heard George Jones sing
on the air. I thought, ‘Well, that’s about
as good as country music gets.’
“You never know where
inspiration is going to strike”
CMC SONGS & STORIES
- LEE KERNAGHAN
Stream* from Monday August 19 or watch at
7pm on Country Music Channel [815]
Hank Williams Jr George Jones Jerry Lee Lewis Big & Rich part of the ENTERTAINMENT packLee Kernaghan
lives and breathes
Aussie country lifeW
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Foxtel AUGUST 23