Ep 101: Danny Phegan _ Part B

In Part B, we’re back with Danny Phegan—farmer, singer-songwriter, entertainer, and all-round top bloke.

This episode dives into the realities of chasing a living, the highs and lows, and the moments that make it all worthwhile. Danny shares the incredible story behind his album From Where I Stand hitting number one on the ARIA Country Album Charts—a huge achievement—and what it’s like performing in front of thousands.

We also get a behind-the-scenes look at his time on The Voice, including Keith Urban spinning his chair and the chaos of backing it up on just an hour’s sleep after a big night.

There’s plenty more too—city crowds versus country crowds, songwriting drawn from real life, a powerful fight song with a story you won’t forget, and a potential scoop involving a new release with James Blundell.

It’s honest, entertaining, and full of character—just like Danny himself. 

Check out Danny's music on your favourite music app.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Salt of the Earth Farm Stories, where the heart of farming comes alive.

SPEAKER_05 0:06

I need to preempt this by saying I don't rate myself, right? I'm a I I know I know where my ability cuts out and work ethic kicks in. I know my limitations, but I always say I don't have to accept them.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Well, this bloke's got stacks of ability. G'day and welcome back. We're straight into part B with Danny Feagan. Farmer, singer-songwriter, entertainer, and absolute legend. In this episode, we hear about the tough ways to make a quid. Danny's album From Where I Stand hitting number one on the ARIA charts. This is huge. And there's a backstage yarn before performing to thousands of fans. There's TV fame too. Yep. The Voice and Keith Urban quickly spinning his chair. And Danny only catching an hour's sleep before his second audition. Thanks to a pub that kept its doors open the night before. Songwriting from Lived Experience. The fight song with a story you've got to hear. And there may even be a scoop about a new release with James Bundle. Danny is a genuine bloke with heaps to give. So hang on to your hat and let's go. How much fun was that to shoot?

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Oh, it was unreal. I got to live my bloody best life, my alter ego, you know, we're gonna dress up like proper cowboys and six shooters and stuff. It was the best. It was, you know, what a life was a lot of fun too, but uh the Halfway Hotel film clip would have to be my favourite. In terms of you know enjoying the process and just getting to dress up a little bit. I had Tilly's horse, Sammy I've been competing on the last two years, and I'm going okay for an old fella on him. I think I've finaled seven out of the eight competitions. The only one I can't final at the Manford Snow Roof Festival, and I'm quite happy about that because um I was no good at brick riding in my 20s. I don't think I've got any better at it in my 50.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So I'd better get back to farming for a little bit. Your best season ever, mate. Remember that?

SPEAKER_05 2:40

I can't, yeah, and I can't. It's it's isn't it funny? It's typical. You always remember your worst season. So remember the 06 drought, remember the 10-11 floods. I know the best couple of seasons we had were back to back, probably about five or six years ago, but I couldn't tell you when they were. I'll guess at 2020. But we had a great season where everything was up. The yields were up, prices were up, cattle prices were up, and sheep prices are up. And I thought, wow, this never happens. And my father-in-law, who's I think 93 or 4 now, says, Yeah, that's a that's a once in a generation year. Um, and it happened again the following year. Wow. Back to back. That was that were a great couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

But they were tough years in those early 2000s, as you say, 2006.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

Mate, 2006, we'd borrow more money than we'd ever seen when we bought this place. And uh, my mother-in-law Mary raised a glass and toasted us and said, Cheers to uh a successful first year. And I said, Jesus, Mary, if it's an average year, I'll be happy, you know, with the amount of money we'd borrowed, and that was worst year on record here, 2006. This country now, I reckon this is probably the third worst year I've seen in 20 years, but 2006 was exponentially worse. When you look out there, instead of seeing stubble, it was just dust. It was horrible. Wow. Has farming ever saved your sanity? Oh it's a tough way to make a quid, but it's got its own beauties. My old man's got a great saying, he says you got a lot of money, you buy a farm for 50 years, you got no money, you sell your farm got a lot of money again. But it's it's um look, I'd I'd say maybe uh the space certainly helps.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

I know you like getting out there on the horse of a of an evening.

SPEAKER_05 4:11

The space in the solitude is amazing, but it's it's caused insanity a few times. Yeah. I went around last night throwing urea blocks out and I've noticed two fresh bloody blowing pipes for water, which are still leaking now when we're talking here, so I've got to go and get money to fix that when we're finished. And just little niggly things like that are that that sounds petty, but it's continuous. You know, those sort of little things are on uh farming all the time.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

That small thing, if that pipe keeps leaking, you've got no water for your stock. So it's a it is a big thing, really.

SPEAKER_05 4:41

A hundred percent. It's everything's urgent when it goes wrong. Farming or music, which tests your patients more. Oh, look, they both take their turns in different fields. Farming is relentless. I mean, it has its beauties, but as we spoke about before, the solitude of it, and and you know, and the sunsets people don't get to see, and that sort of beauty of it. And the animals being close to your animals is great. But farming will test anybody because it's relentless. Music the test in music is is uh people let you down in music. That's something that you can find hard to get over sometimes. We got sacked from the Long Reach show yesterday, but the contracts were out. I've never actually signed a contract in 34 years, and I've never been stiffed either. And this is as close as I've got to being stiff because we bought the flights and everything, but it was a bolt-on to some rodeos up in the Kimberleys and some Darwin work, and then we had to be back down in Brisbane to get across the Longreach, and and then we're playing at a friend's pub that we can't just go and do in isolation because it's too expensive to get the band boys from Canberra and Brisbane everywhere across there. So we're gonna tack that on. And it uh people don't realise when they let you down, it lets a lot of people down, it filters through. I didn't sign a contract, that's more for me. Um as I say, I haven't been stitched up in 34 years. We got sacked yesterday because there's there's two kids doing Australian Idol at the moment, going well, and they live in Longrich, so they can get them cheaper, and their profile at the moment's bigger. So that sort of stuff is you know, it's it's it's an epidemic in this industry, really. People let you down. Um, there's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

You've performed up there plenty of times before.

SPEAKER_05 6:14

Oh, yeah, we performed all over the place. But you you get you get pretty thick skinned about it, you know. And I haven't had to go cap in hand for years to find work, and I I've just trying to attach a few things now to those couple of weeks, and you have to be able to handle objection in music and real estate, coincidentally, because you'll get more knockbacks and you'll get open doors, and people let you down.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

From where I stand, sometimes it's hard to see. What the hell's going on right in front of me?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Mate, this next song peaked at number one on the Aria Country Album charts. From Where I Stand. This is huge.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

Yeah, uh no, actually, this the single didn't uh peak at number one, but that was the title of the album, which went to number one on the Aria charts. Congratulations. Yeah, thanks, mate. I didn't write it. I didn't write this song. Put my hand up there straight away. Eleven of the songs on that album are originals. I didn't write from where I stand, it got punted to me as a demo from uh, I think a fellow in Canada wrote it. Um it got punted to me and I thought it was too slow. I knocked it back with my record producer at the time. I said, no, it's not the feel I'm after.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

As long as sound.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

And then I had a Facebook argument with a dear friend, um, Gabrielle. We're arguing over something. Um I was a Pauline Hansen supporter back then, and and still am. I still am. Yeah, I know she's got a failure, they all do, but uh I've met her a number of times and I like the woman. And we had a Facebook argument with something loosely related to Pauline many, many years ago, so be 10 years ago. And I felt like I um I was sticking the boots in a little bit, and she's no uh shrinking violet either, she can return fire, and it got a little bit savage, and uh I didn't feel good about it. So, you know, if I'm losing an argument on an intellectual level, it's very easy to drive the boots in uh and try and do it cheaply, and I didn't feel good about that. So I rang her the next day and I said, I'm sorry, I don't feel good about that at all. And she dropped this line on me. She said, Danny, I reckon you're great bloke. At the end of the day, we're all just trying to do the best we can from where we stand. And I thought, wow. So I ran the producer, I said, Give me that song back again, I want to have another listen to it. And when I listened to it with fresh ears, I said, I'm definitely gonna record this song. And you know what? I'm gonna name the album after it as well. And uh we filmed the film clip around here, the Phillips property up here on the Ambler Ranges, all that stuff that looks like the Kimberley's is only just here. Uh a lot of it was filmed up there, and the rest of it was filmed here at home on Roseville. And I said to the fellas doing the um the cinematography, I said, you know what? Only happens once or twice a year, but every now and then nature comes out to play with us on this property. You'll get the fog will sit in the valleys here at home, the big gum trees will protrude through that mist, and the sun will rise over the light. And I said, you know, we've got more chance of stealing the Queen's handbag than that happening in the morning, but let's let's just let's just keep the faith and see what happens. And bugger me if it wasn't the most glorious sunrise the next morning. On the film clip, it's actually pitched as a sunset, but it was a sunrise. And I got all the the actors in it are my family. You know, my cousin was a school teacher, her deceased father, Vin Griffiths, uh, is or was and still is my uncle. He died of cancer when he's in his early 50s. Um, my uncle Johnny Gorcom, who passed away last year, was an Australian champion, light heavyweight boxer. He was the baker from Wagga. My brother-in-law, who's a serving veteran, uh, was the bikey who filled up here. It just means a lot to have your family sort of tied into it. So obviously, close family members and friends as well, were in here as well. I got a little bit of trouble for filming a scene down at the local primary school. Apparently, you're not meant to do that on weekends without government approval or some bloody thing, but I always figure it's easy to apologise and ask permission. So we dressed all these all these kids, all these friends, all my kids up, and um the Torrance family down the road, great, great friends there. Kids dressed up in their high school uniform, a lot of locals, and they all just made out it was a bloody Friday afternoon. Can't run them out of the school.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

That's an absolute beauty, mate.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

From where I stand, that'll be okay.

SPEAKER_05 10:38

Yeah, so it went number one. I was on there for for a few weeks, too, and I stayed in the top ten for about 10 or 12 weeks. So but you know, here's the thing about music that cost me $40,000 to do an album and two film clips. And when that went number one on the Ari charts, I thought, geez, this is great. Like, I don't know if you'll pay it off in a flash. I don't know if this is worth thousands, tens of thousands, or bloody hundred thousand. This this is fantastic. It's gone number one on the Ari charts. I've got a royalty check for $457, so it really means two fifths of five eighths. But you've got to keep that stuff in perspective, perspective because music can be a tough game. You've got to realize you don't love it, you don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Mate, tell me, you're backstage, you're about to go out. There are thousands of people out there. You've had a peek around the corner, the crowd's pumped. How are you feeling?

SPEAKER_05 11:27

Pretty comfortable. Um I've got some tremendous musicians who back me, and they're great mates too. Um, in the most sincerest form, I love the fellas that I'm on the road with. And I just know they've always got my back because I'm only a twanger, mate. I I don't deserve to have these fellas backing me. But I know when I make a faux pas or I stumble or I forget a lyric or something, they are always there to catch me. So with that comes a level of confidence that I rarely get nervous these days, really. I was quoted on the voice, um, that TV show that I I actually didn't I didn't audit, I didn't apply to audition for that. I got asked to do it. I actually was quoted on there that was nice to feel nervous again. And uh and I was shitting bricks on that show because I, as I said, I didn't actually apply for it. They asked me to do it, and I think now that I I know the lay of the land, I'm not supposed to divulge any of this. You sign contracts, you don't tell people I don't care. Once again, the jails are full, I don't want me. I was just curious about how it all worked, and I think I've got a curious personality, and I was just following my nose through each step, you know. And my curiosity led me to the back of those big doors that are about to slide open to a live audience and on national TV, and that's when it hit home. Well, you've cooked your goose now, boy. You're about to get judged by the whole Australian public, you know, you better pull this together. And I did a really good job of the first song. I was quite happy with with how that went. And what was that song? It's a song called This Town. I think it was a One Direction song. Um I heard that Noel Horrin sing it, and I um just country or folk it up a little bit, and it just sort of suited me. I knew I couldn't compete with those big singers that had all the vibrato, and so I had to do a bit of a storytelling song. Well, it didn't take long for Keith Urban to turn his chair. Yeah, it was great, and uh I was very relieved about that because really that was my that was my A game was to not only me meet Keith, um I wasn't as excited, you know, that was great too, but I wasn't as excited about my wife and kids meeting Keith. And the voice asked me to pick four family members to have side of stage with me. Four? Yeah, six. Out of out of six in Caroline. And I said, Well, you go and pick my favourite four. You pick which one would you pick? Yeah. And they said, Oh, well, you can only have four. And I said, Oh, look, I don't need to do this. I I said, let's not worry about it. And um, they said, Oh, geez, you're gonna get shirty and not sing your song. I said, No, no, I said, You've got half that right. I'm not shirty at all, but I'm not gonna sing a song. I don't need to do this. Um, they said, Well, all right, you can have all of them then. So I had six kids and Caroline there. And it was great because I just wanted to meet Keith and get a buzz out of the whole sort of a journey, too, you know. And when he turned his chair, and then um Jess turned her chair, and she's just a sweetheart. Uh, I've seen her since up in Darwin um with Tilly. Um, she's just a gorgeous person. And then the um I can't even name the pommy she was bloody. Rita Ora. She's pretty famous, apparently, but I didn't I didn't know she was, but I I wouldn't mind taking her camping, I can tell you that. She's not a bad sort, but um I didn't know she was, and uh so I yeah, I went with Keith and Keith came out and uh the kids got to meet him, got a photo with him, and Caroline got a kiss on the cheek, he warmed her up for me, and I uh I said to him quite tongue-in-cheek, because uh he was playing, I think, down in Melbourne the next night. And uh yeah, we're just having a bit of a chat and the and the cameras are off us now, they're gone and found something else to do. So we're having quite an informal chat, and I said, mate, you're playing down in Melbourne tomorrow night. He said, Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, down at Rod Labour. I said, mate, we've got a spare seat in the trago if you want to lift from here. And he was so polite. I was only taking a piss. He was so polite. He goes, Oh, oh, look, thanks, Danny. I I think I've got I said, mate, I'm right, Joker. I said, hardly gonna come down the buddy, Melbourne, the trago with a brain bunch. You're probably gonna chop a party at the back. But but he was great. It was nice, fella. Yeah, he was really nice. Yeah, he was good. I think I probably got the best out of him because I wasn't fanboying over him, so we had a few good yarns. What was your next song? Uh, it was one that he picked and I I buggered it up. Um, it was a Ed Sheeran song called Castle on the Hill. Uh, and actually, if I if you look at my guitar, I've still got the starting lyrics. Quite often I just need some prompting lyrics to get going, a bit of a run-up. Uh, when I was six years old, I broke my leg. It's written on uh on the back of my guitar just because I uh I was really panicking about it. And those shows, it looks like you've only got two hours to prepare for that. I had two days to prepare for that, and I buggered up because it's not the only reason, but I was up there in Sydney a week longer than I ever wanted to be there. I wasn't taking that experience for granted, but I'd had some fun, you know, we'd met Keith Urban and everything, and but your competitive streak does come out. I did do my best with the second song, I didn't self-sabotage, but so I I said to Big Sean, who also uh was on Team Keith, terrific fella, I've been in Sydney a you know a week longer than I wanted to be there, and I was dying for a beer, and I said, mate, I'm gonna go down the local and just have a have a couple of beers. And although those uh shows they look like they all look like those performances all happened in the dark at night. My second song was like 8 30 on a Wednesday morning. And Sean he had a I don't think they call it a golden buzzer on that show, but he he was through the last round because he was so good. And I said, mate, I'm gonna go and have a couple of beers. He said, I'll come with you. He said, but uh, haven't you got to sing first thing in the morning? I said, Yeah, yeah, we only have a couple though. We dragged our backsides back to the motel at about quarter past four next morning. I was in a taxi at 5 30 on my way to Fox Studios to go get ready for the second song. I was in a world of pain, more bright red faced. But it wasn't all our fault because I um we were real looking forward to coming home at about a quarter to midnight. And then when midnight hit, they went and rang a bell and they said, COVID's officially over, you can take your masks off, and rah-rah.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

And we just shots, shots all around with celebrate.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

And so I didn't do a great job with the second song. I did, I did, I didn't disgrace myself, it went okay, but uh young Lane Pittman uh went through and he's done big things. Uh, and Freddie Bailey, the two of those, those went through. But I feel like I got in and I got out at the right time for me because that next stage um I would have been locked into an option of a five-year contract. So I got in, I got out with public opinion on my side, uh, and it was just a happy story for me the whole way around. I loved it. And that that particular show, I can't speak on behalf of the others, but they look after their artists too. They won't let you sing unless you can handle yourself a little bit. Yeah. There's no B rule where they make a fool of you. Yeah, I know people who've been on Australian Idol, Australia's Got Talent, who are still not right now because they got made, they got poked fun at nationally, yeah, because those shows went out of their way to put them on the B rule. And and they didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, yeah. You had plenty of people uh barricading for you down this way, I can tell you that. Mate, um was it good to be home after all that? Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

Yeah, and I was it was nice to get back home. It was it was funny when it came out, when it aired was probably three or four months later, and I still haven't seen the um the full YouTube stuff because I was out at Lightning Ridge at our Opal mine with my mate that I've been mining with for 25 years, so there's no service out there. And I I kind of got second-hand nerves because uh I knew it was gonna happen because I lived it, but you don't know how they're gonna edit yet either. And there's a there was a couple of there's a couple of times they could have edited me, you know, they could have hedged their bets a little bit. I remember one time a fellow called Richard, he had these bright lime green piggy tails that used to come down the front, bright lime green. And this other little girl, I can't remember her name, she didn't make it to the telly, but she had this tiny bright fluorescent pink bobtail haircut and little bright pink boob tube and little bright pink skirt and knickers. And and I I said to Shawnee, I said, Jesus, get a load of these two. If they get it on, we'll have a room full of MMs. And the producer came over and said, Danny, your mic's on. You forget that you're mic'd up all day and night, so they can get those little gotcha moments. Yeah, yeah. So I was a little bit nervous that they might have and the other one was I was like, No, they didn't. No, and the other one was um, I'll call them kids, I can now because I'm 50, but you get these these youngins, these kids, they're getting interviewed, and they say, What does a voice mean to you? Oh, these kids, oh, I don't have a plan B. This means everything to me. This is my whole life, this is my world. And then it came my turn. They said, Danny, what does a voice mean to you? What made you decide to do it? I said, Because you asked me. So there was times that they could edit me a bit cheekily, but they they edited me well. I got along with all the producers well, I think that helps. Good.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Any rituals with your band now just prior to going out on stage? Uh not really.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

We're on automatic pilot a little bit. Caroline said a few years back she marvels at the way that we can be anywhere. And we played a lot of things that um that myself and the kids ride at too, like the man from Snow Rivers and Stockman Challenges and Camp Rafs and things. And you're kind of in one frame of mind, and she she marvels that uh it's like a an imaginary whistle goes off, and we just snap straight into musician mindset, and we're quite serious about you know going tuning up our instruments and making sure we're right because we never start late. We never start late and we never finish early. Always give the boss his pound of flesh. So we're always ready to go. But yeah, there's not really any rituals other than we know when it's time to flick a switch. Is there a gig you'll never forget? Oh it's hard to answer that one straight off the cuff. Um obviously that your most recent ones are always the freshest in your mind. That the rodeo, the Saturday night of the rodeo down in Geelong, the weekend just passed, would have to be the biggest and most engaged crowd I've had in quite a while. Well done. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, it was great. Oh, I'll tell you one, I won't forget. Mountain Cattlemans years ago. Uh, I think they had security enough for 2,000 people. We must have played to six or seven thousand people in front of us. There wasn't enough uh security mesh and fencing. There certainly weren't enough security guards, and actually the four guards that were on duty all stayed on the hill and said, We are not getting in front of that. So left Australian devices, and it it really came down to uh we had to manage it ourselves. I had the committee come up and say, Danny, you've got to slow this down and rah-rah. And I and I was I was annoyed because I said, mate, it's our job to make them want to do that, it's your job to control it. You know, I can't get up there and daddy them um and you know, big brother them, or then I look like the prick. But we had to in the end because um people were getting squashed at the front and it was just getting a little bit crazy. So that's probably one that jumps to mind. That would probably be the biggest crowd I've played to, I reckon, in my little humble career. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Wow. Now I was chatting to your daughter Tilly before, and I said uh asked her about your first paid gig. Can you tell me about that?

SPEAKER_05 21:43

Well, it was in a bit of a roundabout way, I wasn't paid at all. My first pay I was playing with my cousin when I was 16, uh Brad Baker. We were duoing together, and I had an early license because Parfree got crooked with cancer, so and and Willinga was considered a remote area back then. So I drove Mum's Tarago out to Holbrook to play at a duo out there at the um the pub across the road from the sub, I think they call that the top one, top pub at Holbrook. Uh I think we're at 250 bucks, and I thought we did a hell of a good job. It wasn't until about 10 years later that dad told me he paid the public in to pay us.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

What's the moment you thought, yeah, I can do this with music?

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Oh, I don't know if I'm still there. I don't know if I'm there yet. It's funny, I I wasn't thinking about, I didn't know you were gonna ask me that question, but I was I was uh I was just contemplating my music journey. I've been doing it 34 years now, and I think the long reach thing made me think about it, that I hadn't been let down before particularly, and um it's there's been a lot of incarnations of bands and stuff and duo partners I've been with, and none of those departures have been particularly frosty, but I've I need to preempt this by saying I don't rate myself, right? I'm a I I know I know where my ability cuts out and uh and work ethic kicks in. Um I know my limitations, but I always say I don't have to accept them. But over the incarnations of years of bands and people that I've played with, when someone peels off or or has to get given their marching orders or whatever else for you know either drinking too much or or just not taking professionally, whatever, I'm sure in their mind they think the wheels are gonna fall off the billy cart and it's all gonna fall over. And although I don't have a massive opinion of myself at all, you need to have some ego, you wouldn't get on stage. Um, but I don't have a massive opinion of myself. I'm quite aware of my vulnerabilities and my limitations, but I must have something that goes alright because the show just keeps on rolling and it keeps on getting stronger over 30 years, and uh and I must admit, every time someone leaves, I know quietly they're thinking it's gonna fall in a heap now. And I reckon that's just a little bit of the fuel that flames a fire too to make sure that that things keep rolling along. And I think in uh recent times it's been such a great fit the last 10 years with these boys and with now, they really are my best mates. They bought me a bloody Fender telecaster last weekend before I went on stage. It's no small thing for my birthday. It's it was it was beautiful. And I got crooked the year before that. I got really sick, and I didn't know if I was ever gonna do this again. I wasn't sure I can do anything again. And they and I was worried I was letting everybody down, and they said, We don't care, Danny, if it takes you a year or two years to get back on your feet, we'll be here at the end of it waiting for you. And it doesn't matter if you don't want to do this ever again, it doesn't matter, and they're just great blokes. Um, so that specific example doesn't I don't attribute that to that to them, but but we're still rolling and I'm still here, and I and the comfort of playing with these blokes makes me think I must go all right at this, you know, because they're they're with me and they're my mates, and and we're still playing the big crowds and we're still doing our thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

That stems back to your attitude and your personality to have their continuous support both on stage but also you know your audience as well. So um it's a real credit to you. Pub crowd or festival crowd?

SPEAKER_05 25:02

Yeah, once again, they've both got their merits. Um when I played at Kinross once a month for 15 years, quite often Nick would say, Why don't you go and play in the big auditorium out there? But I used to get a bigger buzz out of playing to 150 people in the bar than I did 400 out in the auditorium because it would still feel half empty, whereas you'd be shoulder to shoulder in the bar. I love that atmosphere. I must admit, as you get older, you do lose your tolerance a little bit for drunks when you aren't one. Um, and I've been the greatest drunk of all time, but you know, loose shoulders and elbows and just getting bumped and that sort of stuff. Um at this stage of my life, I like the festival stuff because you can choose to be in the mix, but you can also retreat from it. City crowds or country crowds? Mate, I feel like I'm repeating myself, but they've both got their strengths and weaknesses. City crowds are actually a lot of fun because you know, particularly we play these rodeos that are close to the city. There's M5 radios down around Geelong and um Bendigo, right in town in Bendigo and a few of these places, they're bloody good fun. They get to put their cowboy hats on and the cowboy boots, and they're just there for a good time.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Love it. Have you ever played when you probably shouldn't have? Uh like being drunk. Well, or crook or um had an injury of some sort.

SPEAKER_05 26:13

Uh I used to find early in the days like uh I would never drink on stage, uh, which wasn't any great moral decision. It was um purely a functional reality that if I had a beer, it used to shorten my range, I couldn't get the high notes and I couldn't get the low notes, used to dull my voice a bit. That has morphed into now that I nearly always drink on stage, which is also a function functionality reality. From a good point of view. Well, I just I'd need it because uh I think when you get a bit older and I've never been taught how to sing, so I don't sing correctly. So my vocals get quite fatigued if I've got to back up the second night. And uh they say that anything burns on the way down will help you out short term, has a long-term derogatory effect. But so I'll quite often I always put it like a couple of shots or three shots of whiskey or something like that, but I'll put it in a coffee cup, like a takeaway cappuccino cup, so I don't look like I'm trying to rock star downstage. But I'll uh I'll be having a little snorts all night. Um, and sometimes when I'm doing that, if I'm struggling, if I'm struggling, if I'm particularly struggling, I'll probably go a little bit too hard at the grog, and I become aware that it's overtaken me halfway through the night. And it's uh it's like a ship coming into port, you know. When you pull up, you don't automatically just come crystal clear thinking again. It's it takes a little while. So I've got to be really self-aware of where I'm at with that stuff, and it's a balance to make sure I'm gonna get through the night with the vocals. I don't let anyone down, but sometimes um I've overtaken myself and I've been a bit drunk. Um I don't think visually anyone can tell too much. Audibly, if they're switched on, they might be able to. But the main thing is is if I drink too much, I start to forget lyrics um and things just become a bit of a wash and a mess. And that's where the boys just come in and save me all the time because they can all sing, they all sing better than me. So they can all sing, and that's just it's just such a great outfit. But you know, there wouldn't be too many of those times, but there's probably been a few of those. I um I've never missed a show in 34 years, except for when I got crooked 18 months ago, and I I fell in a heap on the Monday night. I was meant to be playing at the Mountain Cattlemans on the Friday or Saturday, and Sodans the following weekend. We only do those couple uh spots at Sodans twice a year locally, uh, and I had to pull out on that short notice, and I didn't feel great about that at all. But it's nothing. You were pretty crooked. I was very crooked, yeah. It's no good.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

On that note, three parts drunk.

SPEAKER_05 28:45

This is pretty wild. Yeah. So I well, you know, I don't mind a drink, obviously, but I uh I said to Caroline years ago, do you think I've got a drinking problem? She said, You have always had a drinking problem that you've always been in control of. And I said, Well, that's like you telling me I've got the biggest old fellow of all my mates, I'm not sure whether you're thrilled about that or or offended. But um I when I decided to give the industry stuff a go, you know, the Tamworth stuff and put an album out, and I've always said I don't want to be famous, I'm happy to just get paid a wage. And you can get paid well playing two or three nights in pubs. And if you're happy to do that, playing other people's songs, it's it's a it's a wage ticket, you know. But I uh I joke and say I can be I can afford to be a struggling musician now at this stage in my life. So I decided to give the industry stuff a go quite late in life, I was 40. And I went to Tamworth again, I hadn't been there for years, probably 10 or 12 years, just to see the lay of the land, who was doing what. And a blow called Al Tompkins was doing a showcase there, and he only just passed away three weeks ago. And he builds a lot of guitars. He he built this one here, um, and an Australian one that I've got hanging somewhere. And he was playing, I was with a mate there, and I said, I'll be on that stage in two years. And he laughed at me, but I was on that stage in two years, and that was the slow build-up sort of sort of to getting back into it. So Al invited me to go and do his showcase at uh at some suburb of Sydney, I can't bloody remember, but start with a C. Anyway, so I went up there and I you know I thought I'm only going up there to do two bloody songs at this showcase. And I felt I full well knew it was an audition to get the Tamworth spot, which was the one I wanted. So I played the game. So right, Al, I'll come to Sydney nowhere. So he paid me flight and everything. I went up there and I decided not to get accommodation because I figured this show's not going to finish till midnight. The plane will fly out at half past six or seven in the morning. I can drink that long. Um, so I just I did my couple of songs. I got a standing ovation, had to do a third one. We pulled out of our backsides with a band that I'd never met before. And then I just went to the bar and I had my little bag and my hat sitting on the top of the top of the bag, and I was drinking, I was quite happy watching all the rest of the performers. And these Greek blokes came over, these know Andronicus and Anthonyus or something, and you know, proper Greek fellas, and they were champion blokes, and we just got drinking through about three in the morning, three or four in the morning. And then I was starting to get a fair bow on me by this, and these blokes are still working their way up the gears, and I thought I can't keep up with these lads. And they we were about to get kicked out of this club we're in because it was it was closing, and they said, Well, they know the people who own the Greek club around the corner, they'll go and open that up or raid the bar and three or four o'clock in the morning, making a fresh start. I thought, I don't know about this. I had yeah, images in my mind would start smashing plates and carrying on and dancing around. I thought, nah. So I said, Boys, I've got to go, you know, I've got to get going, and I made up some excuse to leave them. But in my mind, I thought I'd be able to go and finish the job at the bar at the airport and just sit there and have a few beers and wait for the flight. But I didn't realise until that particular night, after I'd paid a $50 taxi ride to go around the corner because this bloke got lost, didn't know where he was going. I'd be showing the bloody directions on my phone. Um, got to the airport. Um, I didn't realise the domestic thermal closes overnight. So I'm locked out, I'm looking like one of those Garfield cats stuck in the window. Bloody, I could see the bar, but I couldn't get to it. I was like licking the front window of a lingerie shop. There you go. I was that close. The only bloke I could see in there was the janitor mopping the bloody uh mop on the ground. And uh, so I sat out there with my guitar and I pulled my boot off, used as a pillow, and there was a big Maori fella about four times my size, only a couple of bloody park benches down. I thought I hope it doesn't belt me and steal my guitar. So I sat up and I wrote the song three parts drunk, four am after hours domestic terminal blues. Are you serious?

SPEAKER_03 32:29

Three parts drunk, 4am's domestic terminal blues.

SPEAKER_05 32:35

What a great story. And I was busting for a leak, and everywhere I walked, there was video cameras and stuff, and I and dry as a chip, it was actually horrible, but I got a song in.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

When you waking up, instead I'm coming around, there's a shady fella next to me.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Mate, you're a singer-songwriter. Do some of these songs come straight from the farm?

SPEAKER_05 32:55

Oh yeah, I think so. Um Little Man Does. Before Grog got a hold of me, loosely does. Um it's probably one of my favourite songs on the on the album, actually. It gets overlooked a fair bit, but James Blundell was telling me last year, and and Keith Urban said I should never name Brock. James Blundell said to me last year.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

You're allowed to, mate.

SPEAKER_05 33:18

He said it's a very important song, and we're we're working on it together now. He he said to me, I took James up to weep with me to the bull ride last August, and uh we shared a cabin together for four or five nights, and he said he loves the song, it's a very important song. And James was a bit of a hellraiser in his day. He said, Do you mind if I just you know tidied up a little bit? Some rough edges. I said, mate, your James Bundle, you can read the newspaper to me, do whatever you want to do. Um, and I said, No, of course I wouldn't be offended with that. So we're working on reconstituting that song, and uh and we're gonna re-record it and we're gonna film a film clip for it in uh Golgong just to tie it in with the vegan sort of sentimentality. That's good on that. Yeah, we'll we'll do that soon. Um first half of the year, anyway, we'll get that recorded and we'll go and film that and re-release it. That song came about. I we've been lucky enough. We've we've travelled right around Australia so many times, and um when the kids were smaller, before they started peeling away on me like they are now, all growing up, but we'd roll all our swags up, throw them on the back of an old horse float, and we'd go straight up the guts to Dale and work out how we'd get home from there. And we did it every year for a lot of years. Uh, and we take them, we'd rob a couple of weeks in the middle school holidays from school. Teachers had never approved that, but we just did anyway. Um we just had an old F-truck and an old horse float, but after the first couple of years of doing it, just to suck in too much dust, and then we graduated up to this other big horse float that I designed on paper and got Chris floats and ginger to build for me. So, in all those travels, you know, with the kids and and they'd see a lot of stuff, you know, like um, I've been out there as rock. I'm not Sky, I'm just painting an example. I've been out there as rock thing 13 times now, and the kids have probably been there half a dozen. And out of all that stuff that we've seen and and and the place we've been to, every time I pull up somewhere, I can't wait to get to the pub and just sit there and have a quick couple of beers. And there's pub people and club people, I'm definitely a pub person. And in all those places, while Kaza's got hot dogs boiling or something under the float and feeding the kids, and I'm just having a couple just to start the heart before I come back and set camp up. Inevitably, I'll get talking to some old fella in the corner of the bar, and then normally always the blokes who've got a stool named after them, you know, snowy stool or blue his corner, something like that. And in all the different towns and pubs all over the country, their stories are so similar that they had it all and they blew it because Grog got a hold of them. Um, you know, they talk about their kids haven't seen them for 20 years, you know, and and uh and they'd sit there with their purple noses and be drinking another mouthful out of a schooner.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

I tore through the farm, three kids and a wife.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

I had the perfect messes, and God knows she tried. I just thought, you know, geez, I'm probably, you know, if I wasn't with Caroline, I could be renting a room at the back of a pub myself somewhere, and I uh the home fires would still be coupled with that. Life information, and my stock agent Tim Robinson got a card from a 94-year-old client, and on the card it said, Good luck with your career, Tim. It said, Have a beer, mate. It can be a terrific friend, but it's a cruel master. Um that's when the lyrics, that's where that first lyric came from, and I'd sort of roll from there.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Have a drink, mate, it's a good friend, but it can be a cruel master.

SPEAKER_05 36:22

So that one loosely comes off, you know, the hardships of the land and these blokes turn on the grog. Little man certainly does.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

And I was her king.

SPEAKER_05 36:33

Has success changed how you write? Well, I don't think I've been successful, and I think it's hard to quantify success. Um, it hasn't. I think if I wanted to be successful, I would have to change the way I write. When I write, it comes out very sincere, and and life experience stories, and it becomes quite wordy, which you can probably imagine. So it doesn't have particularly too much commercial appeal. And I I said to the my producer years ago, he said, What sort of an artist are you? And I said, Well, I'm complicated because we're paid to sing uh upbeat country rock at rodeos and festivals and things like that. What I listened to is really quirky, lyric-driven, you know, slightly humorous stuff, which is sort of left of centre, like um Corblund, who's a Canadian folk singer. I like to be entertained with the lyrics. Pete Denny's a good local one. Yeah, but that's the stuff I listen to. But when I write, it seems to come out quite heavy and sincere, folky sort of stuff. And uh, you know, that doesn't appeal to everybody. I got away with it the first album because everyone was waiting for it and they're all about my stories. But the next album, I've always said has to pass the campfire test with strangers, you know. When you someone's passing the guitar around, you rip a song out, and they all stay engaged at the end of it and they don't know it's your song.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Yeah, good test.

SPEAKER_05 37:50

That's that's my test for the next album. But I said to this record producer, as hard as I try, I just can't write about big tits and green tractors. Yeah, you know, it's it's just so surface level. Um, and and a lot of that stuff is driven by amazing melodies in that, of course. But I uh I lack capacity for both amazing melodies and shallow lyrics.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Yeah, yeah. Mate, uh I believe you get into the gym most mornings. Do you find that you have to be fit for the stage physically?

SPEAKER_05 38:19

I think these days I do. Um I've got a few almonds too at a shoulder rico a few years ago. I've got two prolapse discs, one was from a rodeo for one was just from fencing down here at the back, trying to lift a tree off a fence because my chainsaw ran out of fuel. Uh if I stay reasonably fit and not too girthy, everything just works better.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Mate, uh you took on boxing for a while too. Uh is this where the fight song came from?

SPEAKER_05 38:43

Yeah, definitely. I um my uncle Johnny Van Gorkham was an Australian champion, light heavyweight, 73, I think. Golly. Yeah, so we uh we always grew up with these boxing stories, and I was too young to remember them, or I am too young to remember them, but uh the TV ringside stories and um when all the fights were televised on Friday nights. But you hear some terrific one-liners from those old fellas when they get together, you know, and and um that song is made up of all those very funny one-liners that I've heard from these old blokes relay when they're drinking together and comparing hero stories. I got a mate named Mark and a buddy called Brownie. We're all fighters and a go on the rounds in the sweet science of boxing, a 10-round bat. Together, mixed with my own experiences, I did a bit of boxing in my um mid-teens. I was never much good at it, but I did a bit at PCYC when I was police boys club, actually, uh, down there in East Albury. And I circled back in my 40s, a mate of mine down the road here, Mark Torrens. Um, I hadn't seen him for a while, and and he looked tremendously in shape. I said, Jesus, mate, you've done a number on yourself, what are you doing? And he said, Oh, my mate started a gym down in town, adrenaline, boxing conditioning. I'm doing a bit of boxing. And I said, Well, geez, if I'm not raining on your parade, could I uh could I come down? First couple of rounds, there's winks and smiles, and R Lee shuffles, we sharp our styles, we shadow punch, and geez, I love to box. And I the first five rounds I went with Toro down there, I was still wearing bloody Arriot boots, jeans, and a and a bluey single. And uh I gave him hell for about 40 seconds, and then I was on my hands and knees spilling carrots for about three quarters of an hour. Was that unfit? But so we ended up doing that, I don't know, like we're 50 now, so we must have done that for six or seven years, maybe when we've thrown my shoulder, Rico. I haven't done a lot since, but we would spar three mornings a week um and then we'd go and have a coffee.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Got sat on the arse, lumps and love like that. It's not how you go down, it's how you get up. Just punch him in the foot and make us.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

And it was a hell of a thing to want to take your mate's head off for five or ten rounds, and then go and have a coffee. And I said to him one day, I said, mate, you know the trouble you and me is I said, You think you're better than me, but deep down I reckon I'm better than you, and that's why it tends to get a bit serious through the middle round.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

The next three minutes, even breathing's a chore.

SPEAKER_05 41:04

I stuck him in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

So I wrote this off. Boxing's one of those sports though, it is cardio fit, it's core fit, it's legs, it's upper body, it's all over, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 41:12

Well, absolutely, and you're panicking most of the time, so you're you're really getting a workout. If you're not delivering them, you're copping them. And I I actually I delivered that song. We're doing Riders in the Round. There's James Blundell, myself, Brad Butcher, and can't remember, a fourth fella on stools. Riders in the Round at Festivals is like a recovery breakfast where artists get up and they'll do two or three songs each in turn, and they'll explain where the lyrics come from and what happened. I pulled that one out on Great Keppel Island at a Riders in the Round morning, and Dico from Australian Idol, uh, he's not on it now, of course, but you remember Ian Dixon, he was there and I pulled the fight song out, and it was only for a joke, and I only did it for a lark, and he absolutely loved it, and he courted me. He said, You just filled this island with happiness. He said, You've got to record it, and I did, and it became my second number one single after the Halfway Hotel on a bunch of platforms, you know, most downloaded, most bored. And there's no denying what mouth guards will fly into fight for the ages, and all inspiring because the ages were 44 or 43, respect of work.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

So, yeah, that worked out too.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

Well, that's part B with Danny Fegan wrapped up. From the Aria charts to the voice, backstage ghosts, and songwriting straight from life itself. What a yarn. But hang on tight because part C heats up further. We're heading to Lightning Ridge, 50 feet underground. There's mud, water, and even brown snakes. There's farm life truths, turkey school stories, gigs from the top end to the south coast and everywhere in between. And creating lyrics scribbled on napkins mid-flight. You'll hear laughter, heartbreak, and all the heart Danny's got to give. Don't miss it. Part C is 148.