An ARIA Goldtop (Les Paul copy) which my brother Peter bought for me in 1976.

My dad who sang and played me old hillbilly songs and not necessarily playing the right chords! Maybe he's a jazz player. But he would sit at the end of my bed and sing me to sleep and occasionally waking me up at the end of one of his yodels. Another influence was my brother Peter who I formed my first band with. Barry Thornton (Slim Dusty's long time lead guitarist) and Paul Lester a fellow Tasmanian who at one point was rated Australia's top country picker.

I was 16 years old. My brother Peter on vocals and acoustic guitar, my mate Scott Davies on bass and myself on lead. We played at a birthday party and used another old mates (Spike) new AWA stereo as a PA. Needless to say the AWA went to heaven that night after Spike tried to blow his lighter out with one of his speakers. (which was only a 6" Big Ben pie!) He kept turning her up til he blew the flame out!! Our setlist consisted of Slim Dusty, Merle Haggard and Buddy Williams songs. We didn't get paid! Not much has changed!

In 1984 in my first band we played in a town called Scottsdale, Northern Tasmania in winter. There was a big fire outside so everyone stood around that as it was around 0° anywhere else. We proceeded to get the shits and play to nobody inside the hall. The occasional big mouth would come in and yell out "Do you know anything fast?" We all played with gloves on with the fingertips cut out. But we got paid our $80 at the end of the night and drove 180km back home.