Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee That Radio Chick on Still Rockin' It for news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What are they up to at the moment? Let's find out .......
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Joe Camilleri been up to lately? OR The GOAT with a Goatee !!
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians
Joe Camilleri's musical journey reads like a masterclass in Australian rock history. From his humble beginnings as a two-year-old Maltese immigrant arriving in Melbourne to becoming one of Australia's most prolific and respected musicians, Joe's story is one of pure passion and relentless creativity.
"If you've got something you love doing, it's a joy and I think it keeps you healthy," Joe reflects, perhaps revealing the secret to his extraordinary longevity in an industry that often burns out its brightest stars. With over 50 albums to his name and counting, Joe shows no signs of slowing down, joking that he's "still trying to write a good one."
Growing up in a crowded Melbourne household as one of ten children, Joe's musical education came first from the radio and later from the streets after leaving school at age 12. His path through Australian music reads like a who's who of influential bands – from his early days with the Drollies and King Bees to being famously expelled from the Adderley Smith Blues Band for being "too flamboyant" and not adhering to their strict triple denim dress code. Joe's trajectory through Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons (now ARIA Hall of Fame inductees) to founding The Black Sorrows in 1983 has cemented his legendary status.
Beyond his performing prowess, Joe's production credits include work with The Sports, Ross Wilson, Paul Kelly, and Renee Geyer – helping shape the sound of Australian rock across generations. Yet despite these achievements, Joe remains remarkably humble, attributing his success to being in the right place at the right time: "I got to do all the things that I thought I'd be able to do with the talent that I had, which was almost zero."
Now collaborating with The Fabulous Caprettos while simultaneously preparing "The Quintessential Black Sorrows" greatest hits collection and tour, plus a forthcoming album titled "Old Friends and New Companions," Joe embodies his own philosophy that "it's not just about the past, it's about the future."
For fans of authentic Australian music delivered with passion and soul, Joe Camilleri remains the gold standard – the GOAT with a goatee who refuses to even consider retirement.
Catch Joe on tour soon and witness firsthand why, after five decades in music, he's still at the top of his game, creating music that matters. As he puts it simply: "I come to play."
What has Joe Camilleri been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That Radio Chick Cheryl Lee here. Welcome to the Still Rockin' it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. The amazing GOAT, greatest of all time, Joe Camilleri, has just joined the Fabulous Caprettos. We caught up with him for an interview for the telly, an episode of the legend series for Rider TV, eventually finding a spare green room before their gig here in town. I hope you enjoy being a fly on the wall after absolute chaos in Perth airport which threw the entire schedule into disarray. In fact, we finished shooting the episode before we were even scheduled to start. We've never set up so quick, so please enjoy. We had microphone mishaps, interruptions, soundcheck going on in the background, but Joe, as usual, was the absolute, consummate professional and that's why he is both a goat and a legend. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to that radioiochick. com. au.
Joe Camilleri:You're not taking any film. I'm rolling.
Cheryl Lee:I'm rolling here. We're rolling. Way to go. What camera am I looking at, please? This is the double camera, that one Backward and forward. Thank you, ready, you're with Cheryl Lee, that Radio Chick. I'd like to welcome you to Rider TV Legends Series and we have got an amazing legend joining us today and he's just got off the plane, he's just done a sound check and we've got to talk really fast because we've got a few minutes with him before he appears at the Hindley Street Music Hall today.
Joe Camilleri:Thank, you so much. It's a pleasure, and what a beautiful building it is now.
Cheryl Lee:It is, isn't it? Isn't it great? They've done a beautiful job with it, a great job.
Joe Camilleri:Yeah, someone stole my mother's chandelier.
Cheryl Lee:It's beautiful, isn't it? Isn't it great? Do you reckon I could fit that in my purse? We really appreciate you squeezing us in today. Oh, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure, asked you then. Have you discovered the fountain of youth?
Joe Camilleri:Look at you. I don't know, I'm too scared to look at me. You know, I think if you've got something you love doing, it's a joy and I think it keeps you healthy. You know, I have my fair share of gremlins and all the things that everybody goes through. If we didn't judge life by time, I think we'd be younger anyway, better off I think we would be, and it's a much nicer concept. So it's only when someone sort of says man, you know, shouldn't you be under the grass?
Cheryl Lee:You clearly have a passion for what you do and I think it does keep you young. My theory is rock and roll keeps you young. Yeah, you're living proof of that. You came to Australia aged two, from Malta, one of ten.
Joe Camilleri:How was that? Well, you know, I think I know exactly how it happened. My dad, Malta was sort of war-torn, pretty much like any other place when it's been bombed on a daily basis. We were British subjects and you could go to a few different places. You could go to Canada, india, you could have gone to Australia, new Zealand you could have gone to. And he was on his way to England and he met his Sergeant Major and he said I've just got back from Australia, it is paradise. So my dad left in 49, late 49, left mum with four kids to catch the Floriana, I think it was called. Now mum came on the Floriana on the, probably on the five pound scheme. It probably took two months to get here because it would have stopped everywhere. You know, I don't know how she did it, because she had four kids under five. I was two, Mary Ann was was a baby, Frank was four, Phyllis was five, so that was kind of.
Joe Camilleri:I don't know how she did it. You know I don't know how she did it, you know, I don't know how. You know, it was just insane. And my dad set up in Melbourne and there we were. We lived in the inner city of Melbourne. For all those years We'd go from Carlton to St Kilda, st Kilda to Port Melbourne. We spent most of our time in Port Melbourne and then he had.
Joe Camilleri:There was so much work that my dad wanted to get ahead and he would work as a baker at night and a mechanic during the day, and that was kind of. He wasn't the only one there was, just everybody was working hard to break free from the shackles and try to have a place for their family. You know, the only thing that used to annoy me is when we would go rabbit hunting, you know, and we would catch the little bunnies, you know, and he'd kind of think they're yours, they're yours to keep, can we eat them? Can we eat them? Then they're on the plate. You know, you hear that story many, many times from many different people. It was a shock to the system and we, you know, we were originally 13 children, one of 10 living. Now the unbreakable chain is now one of eight.
Cheryl Lee:And you've got five yourself.
Joe Camilleri:I've got five. You know, my dad, you know, keeps rolling over and saying, eh, you're nothing.
Cheryl Lee:You've got a lot of catching up to do.
Joe Camilleri:I did 13,. You only got five. What's wrong with you? I've got five too. Yeah, well, isn't it great?
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, it is. It's fantastic, it's a lovely number.
Joe Camilleri:It was a loving family and it was you know.
Cheryl Lee:Was it a musical family, Joe? Is it in your DNA?
Joe Camilleri:Music was in the house, so I think my parents appreciated the joy that that brings. My brother played the piano accordion, my father played the tuba, which was kind of two of the ugliest instruments on the planet.
Cheryl Lee:They're not very sexy.
Joe Camilleri:Now, you know, two of my favourite instruments is the tuba and the piano accordion. But then it was really daggy and of course TV was just about to hit. We didn't have a TV in 1956, but we would go, the whole neighbourhood would go. We were living in Port Melbourne. The whole neighbourhood would go to the store where they had the yeah, watch it in the window and watch it in the. That's correct, you know, it's kind of it was. It gave a sense of that wonderful community that you would have. You know, as a child you don't think about the trials and tribulations of what your parents are going through. You know, I mean, there's, there was a lot of mouths to feed we also our cousin was living with us as well. Me and Frank were top to tail, you know, for a few years.
Cheryl Lee:You know it was all this kind of bunks we all did in those days but it was kind of okay With our cousins.
Joe Camilleri:And we loved. We kind of loved. We didn't love it at the time but it bonded us. You know, there was that thing where you couldn't all eat together on the same table. Table wasn't big enough so people, you know, you'd have it in shifts, you do all kinds of different things. Travel was kind of. We went to Mildura or something like it felt like it was like you know, it felt like you're on the other end, kind of you couldn't get there.
Joe Camilleri:You know you weren't gonna quite make it. You know it was always a little bit difficult. But I look at those times now with so much joy and glee and when I see my brothers and sisters. You know, we still have this great love for each other and that foundation that you know our parents gave us. You know.
Cheryl Lee:That's awesome. Well, we have got to get you back down there and we've got like 60 years of stuff to talk about. I'll try not to be so shabby I wanted to ask you what came first, your love of the sax or your love of the guitar?
Joe Camilleri:My first love was really the radio.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah.
Joe Camilleri:Okay. So the radio created everything. You got to see Elvis with that J200, that beautiful Gibson J200. You just wanted to have something like that. Some of my relatives had guitars and played a bit.
Joe Camilleri:I didn't really think too much of anything really, I was just kind of interested in music. The radio was kind of a tiny bit of salvation for me. These are the days when you could go outside. You weren't allowed in the house till six o'clock at night, till it got dark night. So it wasn't kind of like, it wasn't sort of something. If you came back you're going to get a belting, so you've got to stay out sick till you do you have that kind of concept. But um, so that was, it was just a joy of music.
Joe Camilleri:And and my sisters well, Phyllis, she was kind of totally into a whole bunch of different things that kind of related to to many different situations that helped my brother and me. And and then there was a tv shows. You know there's a lot of tv shows in the late 50s. Not only there was a lot of british shows, some of them were like bandstand and that sort of well, that was later, although that, you know, there was six o'clock rock. Yeah, there was all those sort of shows, but so you got a lot of americana, a lot of, um, american pop, a lot of english pop, and so I was kind of interested in that, never thought about anything. Never thought about anything until we started, until the british beat really hit 1963 or something. And then me and my friends said why don't we? Why why don't we? We can buy the clothes why don't we buy the instruments too? And how hard is it really?
Cheryl Lee:We can do that.
Joe Camilleri:How hard is it to go? Boom, boom, boom. Was that the Drollies? Well, it ended up being the drollies. The drollies only played two shows and I've just got to say, you know, we lost Bobby Wright a couple of days ago. God bless him. He was the first actor. Bobby and Laurie were the first act we played with.
Joe Camilleri:So, and the Rondells and they, we got a lesson that night. It was good for us and you've got to kick it over somewhere. You know your parents would give up their house not in my case so the drummer can have the house, so we can make a rattle and hum over a couple of hours, you know, and that was. And we'd play one song badly, really badly, and then it just kicked on from there.
Joe Camilleri:I got asked to sing with another band and I didn't want to go with them because my brother was in the band and uh, and my friends you know, my school friends were in the we're in the band and I said but that was so good, is that in the band? But they were so good, is that the King Bees, the King Bees. They were so good compared to us that I was a Judas and I'd jump. And then I started getting my musical education and my street education because I left very early. I left at 12, when I didn't go to school after I was 12 and a half. My education came from kind of working, getting a job, pretending that I was 14, all that nonsense that came with it, and then one thing just led to another and you get this kind of opportunity.
Cheryl Lee:that's how it was so was it the Adderley Smith blues band that they kicked you out of because they said you were too good.
Joe Camilleri:I was just I was too good looking, that's right. I just too good looking. I was flamboyant, was just too good looking. I was flamboyant. You know, I'd wear the clothes of the day and the clothes of the day were very bright and if you're in a blues band, you had to wear triple denim. Yeah, triple denim. You know, triple denim wasn't my idea of fun. Really, it was much better in the 70s than in the 60s, I think. Triple denim with a little leather pad, I think. The disgruntled singer unfortunately turned up and then the audience were so pure about the blues. It's a nuisance really. You know what's good is good. It doesn't really matter what it is. But you know people like to put you in a box and it's the last thing I want to be sort of involved in. And that's how that happened and there was more talk than anything else.
Cheryl Lee:We've got to touch on a couple of your achievements 1990 Rock Performer of the Year, the MOs.
Joe Camilleri:Yeah, well, I didn't turn up for that. Are you too cool, were you? No, no, I just said I ain't gonna win anything and I go to these functions, where I used to go. I've got so many arias, you know, little baby arias, right, and they used to give you the little baby ones, the and if, the silver ones and the gold ones, and I've got about 50 of these things, you know. So it's always the bridesmaid and I said I'm not going to that, and sure enough I. I went out for dinner with the drummer's girlfriend, you know, because, uh, he went, I said to t, I said to Tanya, let's go and have dinner, everyone else is gone, and it turns out, you know, I didn't watch anything on TV. Yeah, that was kind of weird, but I mean, what do those things mean? Anyway, you know, it's just a popularity contest, really, after all. You've got plenty of time, by the way. No, you haven't really. Oh, no, I, you've got plenty of time, by the way. No, you haven't really. But people are coming at the door, they'll be alright.
Cheryl Lee:They'll be fine. Okay, are we good? Yeah, just straighten your toe.
Joe Camilleri:Oh, a flasher Whoopsie. Whoops, five kids, I tell you 2007, JoJo's opened the Falcons.
Cheryl Lee:You must be proud. You guys were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Joe Camilleri:Yeah that was beautiful. It's just the most beautiful thing in a way, when everybody gets together again and there's no animosity there never really was. It's just kind of sometimes you're doing we're doing 300 shows a year, so you're doing this many shows. You know you get a little bit disgruntled, you get a little bit tired, instead of saying why don't we take a year off? But a year in those days was like a lifetime.
Joe Camilleri:Because it was a disposable commodity and we would have to push on and music was just on the rise. Australian music was so buoyant and so, you know, aggressive on so many different levels and everybody's trying to take everybody's space and there was enough room for everybody.
Joe Camilleri:I wouldn't do it unless Wayne Burt, who was the original member of the band. I wouldn't do it unless he was going to be inducted as well. So he was the extra member and he couldn't cope. There was a lot of disco music going on at the time and a lot of rock and roll and he couldn't cope the difference between the two. So he bowed out, to my good fortune, really, because I I ended up using uh, wilbur wilde joined the band, tony faze joined the band and it became a different outfit to the one that we started. Yeah, they were beautiful times and we got to go.
Joe Camilleri:Not that my bar was low, but I got to do all the things that I thought I'd be able to do with the talent that I had, which was almost zero. I get to talk to Ray Charles. I get to talk to Van Morrison. I get to play at Montreux Jazz Festival. I get to play with Elvis. I get to play in Montreux Jazz Festival. I get to play, you know, with Elvis. I get to play with Costello. I get to play with all these different people that were my heroes around that time. They'll give me the inspiration to be to go forward.
Joe Camilleri:And I thought you know, okay, I've done that, now I can get, I can get. I can just get a job 240 hours a week. You know I've got now two kids we a week. You know I've got now two kids. We had one more, hurrah. I kind of wrote a, had a hit with a song called Taxi Mary. That was a big hit and so I was able to sort of rekindle. It was just called Jojo Zep then and I was able to do another side of what I like to do and that lasted for a little while. And then I got back together with Wayne Burt around 83 and we started what is now the Black Sorrows.
Cheryl Lee:I also have to congratulate you for just last year being inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Joe Camilleri:Thank you for that. That was a lovely function to go to because it was about a whole bunch of different. It was about 50 songwriters and different awards for different things, different achievements, because you've got to pass it on and people are talking about things that you like to do. You like to solve a puzzle. If you're writing a song, you can write a song about. You know whether it's in the first party, second party, third party, whatever it is. However, you want the fragments kind of come together and people want to know how you go about doing those things and things that I can't answer yeah, and I wouldn't accept that award once again unless Nick yeah was.
Joe Camilleri:It was also that's so gracious because you know he's more worthy for that award than I am. So that was kind neat.
Cheryl Lee:You certainly have an immense body of work. I printed this off and it's not even up to date, and when we spoke last you had just released your 50th album, St George's Road. There's two more since then, yes, you're relentless.
Joe Camilleri:Well, you know, I'm trying to write a good one. You're going to keep going until you get one. Well, you know, I'm trying to write a good one, you're going to keep going until you get one.
Joe Camilleri:If I'm in the studio, I'm trying to work through a lot of different, a few different concepts, you know. So there's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of things that I can do. Sometimes you've got an idea for a song that you can fulfil, but it's in the framework of the time that you're doing something else. You know you don't actually have to. It could be the last two hours of the session. You say, well, why don't we try this, you know, and then you put that away. Well, you like to think that, yeah, like, I've got a record that's been in the can now for 14 months, which is Is it this one? No, not that one. No, not that one. It's Old, old friends and new companions, you know, is that a scoop.
Joe Camilleri:Joe. Well, it's a Bakelite radio record and I was going to put it out this year and then I thought well, I've got so much stuff out. You know I love the record, it feels good, it grooves really nice in that Bakelite radio way.
Joe Camilleri:And of course, now we've got a record coming out soon which is the quintessential Black Sorrows record, which is the quintessential black sorrows record, which is the best of a double vinyl best of and a tour to match and a tour, a pretty big tour to match that would knock out a man. There's a few shows, goodness me, and retirement the r word doesn't exist I?
Joe Camilleri:I don't think there's any. I don't know why people want to do that. I can understand if their body or their voice or something that they're finding it's just an impossibility. Yeah, I've been fortunate enough not to have that. I've got a lot of issues, but not necessarily the issues that stop me from singing or playing or wanting to do stuff. I can only speak from.
Joe Camilleri:You know how it works for me, but there's a time to play, there's a time to play, there's a time to write, there's a time to fix up the ideas if they come your way. I'm a great believer. If an idea comes your way, you either decide to grab it and start working with it and dealing with it and try to get it to a point where you can park it, and then you kind of you tank out, you do something else. It's all about the performance, it's all about the shows and then. But you can work on the ideas that you had and I think all these steps make a really big difference and there are times when I want to learn something, whether it's how to make a chair or how to play this beautiful song, you know, or try to get inside that wonderful songwriter.
Cheryl Lee:I think that's what keeps you young, Joe.
Joe Camilleri:No, it's the moisture. I should be keeping this.
Cheryl Lee:I also just wanted to briefly touch on, because not only are you a great performer and singer and sax player and guitarist and songwriter and everything, but you also did some producing as well. I've done a bit of that.
Joe Camilleri:Yeah yeah, I love doing that. I don't like doing it as much anymore, you know. And what I actually found and I had a few hits with that, but what I found is that you put so much effort in someone else's work, you run out of stuff for yourself. I'm so selfish.
Cheryl Lee:Just to mention some of the acts that you produced or played for, Skyks ooks, tim Finn, ice House, mondo Rock, and I remember we talked about the cold chisel gig last time when you had to fight Wilbur Wilde for the gig.
Joe Camilleri:Oh yeah, well, that's true. But I didn't do anything with Tim, I just played on his record. Ah, yes, right, but I did something with Riles and I did a lot of things. I did stuff for Jane Clifton. We had a big hit with the Girl in the Mirror. We had a big hit with that. And I did a lot of songs, produced a lot of my own work.
Joe Camilleri:It's kind of fun to a degree, you know, because you really have to direct traffic. You've got to be really good at being diplomatic. Sometimes you can get really frustrated with all that, because you can say to an artist well, you're gonna hit a brick wall and they can't see it at that particular point of time, and so if it's a hit record, they take the credit, if it's a flop, it's my, take the credit. If it's a flop, it's my fault. I gave up on that. It was too time consuming for me, so I do my own. Now I'm trying to not even do that. I'm trying to find people that can help me get through, navigate my things you know, I don't know how you found the time.
Joe Camilleri:You've got 50 plus albums of your own and you still had time to assist other artists with theirs it's only a chat, really, isn't it just a little chat? Go in there and just in the early days I remember doing um paul cully's first hit. You know I want to be like billy baxter. I'd ring it out to within an inch of its life. Really didn't need to do that, what we needed is just the feeling and the joy of being in that song. It was a big hit, it was a good hit for him and it was a good, you know, starting point and I really enjoyed that process and the sports and all those things.
Cheryl Lee:But I was young. I was a lot younger. I should have put my glasses on. I'm too vain Because I missed Renee Geyer.
Joe Camilleri:Oh, that was a lovely record to make with Renee. It's all about communication techniques. You know, we've got a couple of cameras here. They're technical, they know what they're doing, they're just standing there.
Cheryl Lee:Looking important.
Joe Camilleri:But you know, once you get beyond that it's really what the song's about. You've got to get in the song. It's not about how beautiful the guitar is or how wonderful the singer is, it's all about the music. It's all about the passion that comes out of the song that you're trying to do.
Cheryl Lee:I can hear your other band out there If we want to get on and see the dates. Where do we go?
Joe Camilleri:I haven't got the faintest idea where you go. I'm the wrong guy. I haven't the faintest idea. Where do you go?
Cheryl Lee:I'm the wrong guy.
Joe Camilleri:JoeCamilleri. com. au. That's where you go. You go to the Black Sorrow site. I guess that's right. It's going to be fun and what I'm trying to produce. I want to try to produce something that's memorable to people. I've got a fistful of great songs. I've got a lovely band to play with. I've got a lovely band to play with. I've got some extra people I want to have on the shows. I want to pay homage to the 40 odd years that we've been playing together with with Grace.
Cheryl Lee:That's why I love coming. I want to be there. If you want to be there, you're already a winner, yeah. So get onto the Googlometer and track down when Joe and his guys are coming to your town. And if he wasn't busy enough with a massive tour and another new album, I've lost track. Now I can't count them. You've joined forces with like a boy band.
Joe Camilleri:Well, you know, it's great. You know, I mean because they're beautiful people and they feel that it's not just about the past, it's about the future. They're going to work collectively on making a record together. I hope I'm going to be involved in that and I think that's where the future lies. You know, there was a time when nobody would play live. It was all about records. But now it's all about playing live.
Cheryl Lee:It's sort of a humble circle, isn't it it?
Joe Camilleri:has, and it's a joy to be with these lads, and we normally do. Oh, this is my first tour. Yeah, I'm the oldest kid goat on the planet, so goat being the greatest of all time and I've got a goatee. No, it's wonderful, and sometimes you cross swords with people on stage but you don't get to know them. And all of a sudden you get to know and their beauty starts shining. You know, we also have this wonderful respect for each other, so it's lovely great bunch of fellows.
Cheryl Lee:I was the number one ticket holder, first on the computer. I'll see you down there in the front row a bit later now. And was there anything else you wanted to touch on, joe? No, no, I'm good I don't know, I talk a lot all right, I've got one more question for you, and then I'll let you go. We're called rider tv, so I have to ask you this question do you have anything on your rider that you just have to have? Joe, oh, I see one no, not really.
Joe Camilleri:Um, pretty easy I used to be. It was kind of weird. I'd want to have ginger. You know, I was kind of crazy on ginger tea and I'd want to have that because it was good when we were doing, you know, a lot of shows, 250 shows, and so your voice is is gonna fade here and the ginger would help. And then I started taking supplements to sort of keep me strong and I did this gig once these were on the rider. You know there's certain supplement. I did this gig and I poured it out and I was going to drink it. I uh went and did the gig and it was incredible. I came home so I told you that fuji stuff was incredible and they just pointed over to the thing still there, mate, I gave, I gave up on that that night. No, it's uh. No, I'm not my thing. I come to play. I don't come for drinks, I come to play. Yeah, I don't come for drinks, I come to play.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, it's been great that you've spent a few minutes with us chatting. You're definitely one of our Aussie legends and we're so proud of all your achievements. And there's more, plenty more to come, isn't there?
Joe Camilleri:Let's hope so. Plenty more. Where that came from? I hope so. Joe, we better let you go before we get into trouble. Okay, thank you so much. Wonderful, did we go good?
Cheryl Lee:we got enough.
Joe Camilleri:I'm sure we have. Oh, there we go. You are listening to Still Rocking it the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:I hope you enjoyed being a fly on the wall during the taping of the legend series for Rider TV with the legend that is Joe Camilleri, and Did we Dance All Night Later to this song? That's going to take us out. I can't play you a new song from the quintessential album as yet, so I'm going back to one of my favourites, Harley and Rose. It was released in 1990, the first single from their sixth studio album album. Harley and Rose, peeked at 24 on the ARIA charts, was nominated for ARIA song of the year. Won country song of the year at the APRA music awards.
Joe Camilleri:You're with Cheryl Lee that radio chick.
Cheryl Lee:Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.