Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Ross Wilson been up to lately? OR Backstage with Ross Wilson: 50 Years of Hits and Still Rocking
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Australian rock legend Ross Wilson opens up in this fascinating backstage conversation just moments before taking the stage on his record-breaking "50 Years of Hits" tour. With the tour expanding to over 150 shows, this marks the most extensive touring schedule of his 60-year career—proving that retirement isn't in his vocabulary.
From humble beginnings in Melbourne church choirs to forming iconic bands, Ross shares the pivotal moments that shaped his extraordinary journey. He reveals how Daddy Cool emerged from his experimental band Sons of the Vegetal Mother, becoming the surprise hit of the 1971 Myponga Festival before they'd even released a record. Their pioneering music video for "Eagle Rock," filmed at this festival, helped propel them to nationwide success—years before MTV made music videos essential.
Beyond his performing career, Ross offers insights into his work as a producer, including discovering and producing Skyhooks, whose success eventually surpassed Daddy Cool's record-breaking sales. Though selective about production work, his golden touch extended to working with Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons, The Screaming Jets, and writing hits for other artists—including "Touch of Paradise" for John Farnham and "I Come In Peace" for Joe Cocker's final recording.
The conversation takes unexpected turns through Ross's television appearances, his induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame (twice!), and the peculiar pants-dropping tradition that accompanies "Eagle Rock" at weddings and parties across Australia, revealing plans for attempting a world-record charity event around this unique phenomenon.
Despite his legendary status, Ross remains refreshingly grounded. His latest blues EP tackles modern social media addiction, showing his continued relevance while honoring his musical roots. As he continues selling out venues with his band The Peaceniks, it's clear that after six decades, Ross Wilson isn't just still rocking it—he's reaching new heights.
Subscribe now to hear more intimate conversations with the artists who shaped Australian music history!
What has Ross the Boss 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 Cheek Cheryl Lee here. Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast, where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. The legend that is Ross Wilson came to our town yesterday and I interviewed him for the telly as part of our legend series for Ryder TV at the venue. Due to overwhelming popular demand, ross Wilson's 50 Years of Hits tour extends into this year and to over 150 shows, making it the biggest tour of his career. This year marks an incredible 60 years since his first local Melbourne hit single, louie Louie, by his first band, the Pink Thinks. Ross and his all-star band the Peace Sneaks continue touring relentlessly.
Speaker 1:We chatted to him just before he went on stage for his Now Listen, we're Steppin' Out 50 Years of Hits tour. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to thatradiochickcomau. I'm rollingcomau.
Speaker 3:I'm rolling.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome, I'll give you a clap, the usual three seconds. All right, welcome to Rider TV. You're here with Cheryl Lee, that Radio, chick and Ross Andrew Wilson, hi there. Thank you for joining us today. We are really authentic tonight. We're between the green room and the stage.
Speaker 3:That's right. We're right on the cusp of where it's all happening.
Speaker 1:We've just had soundcheck. You guys are going on in a little while. You rocked Goulwa last night.
Speaker 3:We did. We played at a fantastic old hall there called Centenary Hall, which has now been modernised, and about two years ago ago we realised that out in the regional areas there are all these great art centres and theatres that have been built. So we've started to put on our list of things to do and we'll be going all over the country. But as well as that, you know, we do the full-on rock shows at pubs and clubs, but the theatre thing's really interesting because you you reach a lot of people who don't necessarily go out to see rock shows and but they want to sit down and be comfortable and all that.
Speaker 1:But you know, we get out there and do our thing I reckon you'll rock the roof off the bridge wave tonight and then tomorrow night. No rest for the wicked.
Speaker 3:You're off to big easy radio well, it's in the afternoon, it's a winery down at aldinga and uh, and then we we play in the afternoon, then we jump on a plane and go home, live in melbourne well we, we've only got half an hour.
Speaker 1:How are we going to fit 50-plus years into half an hour?
Speaker 3:Yeah well, there's a lot of gigs. I can't talk about all of them.
Speaker 1:But I thought we might quickly go back before we sort of go forward. And I'm just wondering, ross is music in your DNA? Are you from a musical family? When did you realise that this was your thing?
Speaker 3:Well, I guess there was a bit of influence from my parents. There was always music around the house. Some of it was my mother. Actually she was quite a good pianist and a very good violin player and a trained singer like choral work, so she would always. She ended up as a housewife because the wars kind of got in the way of some of her ambitions the second war I'm talking about, and I think maybe she projected that onto me a bit and my brother.
Speaker 1:She didn't even like curiously through you.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah maybe, but she was very smart. She took us along too. She would join whatever church choir she thought was the best in the area. It didn't matter what the religion was. So we ended up being in the church choir at Holy Trinity in Hampton, victoria suburb of Melbourne, and that's where I think I learned to sing harmonies a bit better. You know, you've got to stick to your own part, and all that.
Speaker 1:Keep it in your lane.
Speaker 3:At the same time I was just listening to what was on the radio and my dad would play a lot of jazz music. He was a jazz fan and he had a trumpet and he played the trumpet and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, to answer your question, I think some of that rubbed off on me.
Speaker 1:And was there ever a plan B if this music thing hadn't worked out for you? Or was this it?
Speaker 3:Well, it was kind of it because in my final year at secondary school, that's when I got in my first band, it was just a bunch of neighbourhood kids, one from my school, my buddy who played the drums, richard, and some guys from Brighton High down the road, and we were playing. I played at Jamming with some other young band. I was playing at Harmonica, you know, playing a bit of bluesy stuff, and these young guys said, oh, we want to play that kind of music. Can you sing? And I said, yeah, I can sing. So I ended up going off to Ross Hannaford's Garage the following week and suddenly I was in a band.
Speaker 1:And the rest is history.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I got sucked in and we didn't write our own songs at that stage. But as time went by and I left school and we continued on playing with bands and I started to write my own songs. I was working as a clerk for the government and I had plenty of time. I had my own phone and scribbling down lyrics for when I was go home and then work them out.
Speaker 2:You are listening to Still Rocking it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:I think there are a total of three recordings of songs by Sons of the Vegetable Mother. Here's one of them I've tracked down. Make it begin, and then we're back to Be a Fire on the Wall again at the television interview with the legendary Ross Wilson and find out a little bit about this band that ultimately morphed into Daddy Cool. Oh, I'm just trying to see you friend. Try and see your friend. I love the Adelaide, the South Australian connection, because we were just talking to our cameraman who was at your first concert in.
Speaker 3:Adelaide, at Glenelg. Yeah, we had been playing a sort of underground band I had called Sons of the Vegetal Mother.
Speaker 2:It was a pretty wild band.
Speaker 3:I really liked it, but it was quite large and we only played these particular gigs that they put on once a month. And I said to three of the members which was Gary on drums and Wayne on the bass and Ross Hannaford on guitar I said, let's do this side project, have a bit of fun, sing some old R&B, got a couple of songs here and as soon as we started playing as a four-piece it was like whoa, this is great, you know, and we could all sing. So we had the bass voice of Ross Hannaford and we could sing all this doo-woppy stuff and plus the things we wrote ourselves. And the Sons of Asian Mother were booked to play at the Aquarius Blues Festival run by Alex Inacenti, who's still around, and we had another booking coming up at an underground dance in Melbourne TF Match Ballroom. So let's do an off-Broadway performance.
Speaker 3:I think our name was on the bill, but that was the first time Daddy Cool actually performed in public. I think it was October 1970.
Speaker 1:And then in the 71, Maiponga.
Speaker 3:With Maiponga. We came back we still hadn't released a record but there was a big buzz around Daddy Cool in Melbourne and that filtered through and my ponga, which was, you know, quite a large outdoor festival.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I couldn't easily say I think we were the hit of the festival yeah well, it's interesting though, you know, if you look at the eagle rock film clip, which still gets played, there's all this footage of a set of festival. Well, that was my ponga, and we hadn't even released a record, but a friend of ours, who was a budding filmmaker, was following us around and taking that raw footage.
Speaker 1:You were ahead of your time. And then we MTV.
Speaker 3:Well, we didn't even realise that. No, you know, and it wasn't until later on, only a couple of years later, when, you know, countdown took off and Video clip came, video became the currency, you know, and I went gee, maybe that film clip had something to do with us going to number one, because it was shown all around Australia and that was the key to the whole thing, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't think the R word is in your vocabulary. You've got 30-plus dates Victoria News, fao, tasi, wa Monday. Monday in August.
Speaker 3:Are you talking about retirement? No, no, I don't have any Rock the boat. I can't see that happening.
Speaker 1:Do you ever rest?
Speaker 3:We're in a pretty big role at the moment. My band, the Peacenicks, who are all excellent musicians and you know, make me sound good and we have a lot of fun together and we rock. You know we rock hard. We're not that polite, you know good music going hard for it, selling out more shows than ever before, so there's no reason to you know we're not struggling. Let me say that you know so like we're going to continue on playing these regional dates and all the capital cities and if you go to my website, rosswilsoncomau, you'll see a huge list of gigs that's getting added to all the time.
Speaker 1:I think you're one of the few artists who can't say that you're going to have a comeback, because you've never, actually ever stopped.
Speaker 3:No, I never stopped. Really I was a little bit of a break. But I didn't retire in the 90s when my marriage to the bop girl, pat Wilson we fell apart, fortunately, and I sort of didn't have as much responsibility. So I was going off and writing with other people and I wrote a bunch of stuff with Jimmy Barnes and he was selling lots of albums and John Farnham did some of my songs, and so I was making a living out of music and occasionally doing shows, and then, as time went by, wanda Rock had broken up as well, but I was sort of doing the odd thing and then gradually got my solo career happening and playing all the time.
Speaker 1:So that's what happened, because you were pretty all-rounder really, because you have also a great career as a producer.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, I did have. My biggest thing was producing Skyworks, because I found them and I was obsessed with getting their songs out there. I said the world's got to hear this music and I could hear things I could help with them with, you know, in my head. So we formed a great relationship and I became their producer and they went on to smash sales records that Daddy Cool had before. But they put it through the roof so like that was my big thing.
Speaker 3:But I wasn't a producer, I didn't. It wasn't a thing I wanted to do all the time, it was only if I thought I could bring something to the project. You know I wasn't like a gun for hire, no, and so I do it a lot less. Now. Sometimes people ask me for a bit of advice. I had some input on a great. I was a really good singer and blues guitarist, lucia Louise, who just put out a single called One man, that myself and James Black, who used to play with Mondo Rock, now with the Black Sorrows, we had a fair bit to do with shaping that. And so when I'm asked and I think that I can add, something I do it, but you know.
Speaker 3:It was nice that Skyhooks was so successful.
Speaker 1:And you also, like I said, worked with Jojo Zip producing and. And you also, like I said, worked with Jojo Zip producing and the Screaming Jets as well.
Speaker 1:I did one of their albums. Yeah, Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, Cheryl Lee. Over 52 years ago Ross Wilson had a gig at Melbourne Uni. Arrived early, He'd never heard of the Night Support Band but decided to check them out. He says they started playing all these funny songs and I just thought it was hilarious. They were very rough, which I kind of liked, but the riffs came through the roughness. So Ross Hannaford and Ross Wilson went backstage. Hannaford offered Freddie the drummer a Camel Non Filter cigarette and Wilson offered the bass player, Greg McKeish, a publishing deal. Here is one of those hilarious songs now from that 1974 album. You Just Like Me Cause I'm Good in Bed. And then back to speak to the man who produced it, Ross the Boss Wilson, very shortly. Hi, I'm Bum Bum.
Speaker 2:O'Starky from that illustrious band, the Skyhawks, and you're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick.
Speaker 1:Johnny Farnham took one of your Mondo Rock songs. He did yeah, he blew it out of the water.
Speaker 3:We're talking about A Touch of Paradise which was actually the very first song ever written for Mondo Rock, but it took us a while to get round to doing a version in the studio. Quite frankly, the Mondo Rock version is okay, but I was never that happy with it. So when Barnum got it and made it his own because he changed the arrangement quite substantially, and out of the various versions that I've been witness to and part of, I've now got a new one, a new version of my own, that's, once again, again quite different, and we're probably going to play it tonight.
Speaker 1:Touch of Paradise Excellent, the composer's version, oh, you heard it first here and you've also done some other. You know out-of-the-box things In 05, you were a judge on. It Takes Two.
Speaker 3:Well, that was one of the weirdest things, you know. I never thought I'd be like a guy on tv, on a panel, but I went for three seasons and I gotta say I did learn quite a bit out of that. You know how to go for it and say what you thought, and I was sort of one of the nice judges yeah, you weren't kyle, no, I was trying to you give them a constructive advice, which was wasn't always possible.
Speaker 3:It was, uh, you know, the prize money would go to charities and all that was like celebrities with tutors. It's like dancing with the stars, except vocalists, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:and then there was your big break on Neighbours. Oh yeah well, Neighbours?
Speaker 3:yeah, I have a long history with Neighbours because prior to my current marriage which we've been married to, being together with Tanya for 30 years and got a couple kids, but before that I had a I had a lovely girlfriend, lovely girlfriend and she was part of the casting crew at Neighbours. So I was going in there all the time, pick her up and say hi to everyone and you know, see all the people coming and going. And then lo and behold my stepdaughter's big sister, Holly.
Speaker 1:The lad's got a role there, I'm going oh, that's interesting. So it was nepotism really Well, no, no I didn't have any say, but I was able to give a little bit of background. Now you going on was nepotism, yeah, later on it was.
Speaker 3:And then you know, Olympia ended up there for quite a few years and on her last scene that she had when she was going off to do other things and quitting Neighbours temporarily neighbours temporarily I had a walk on as myself had a few lines. Well, learning the lines is the hardest part, but I had done some really terrible Z-grade movies where I had to learn pages of terrible dialogue, so I had an insight into that. Just relax, learn the lines. They walked me through it a few times and, hey, it turned out all right, you know.
Speaker 2:You are listening to Still Rocking it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:Let's play a touch of paradise. Of course John Farnham had a massive hit with it, but we're going to have the Mondo Rock version from 1982, their greatest hits album. And then we're back to hear about Rossoss's induction into the aria hall of fame as we continue to be a fly on the wall during our tv interview at the gig before his show and all I do is look into your eyes for that special touch of paradise I just wanted to congratulate you on your in 1989, your individual into the ARIA Hall of Fame yeah, well done.
Speaker 1:And then in 2006 with Daddy Cool.
Speaker 3:With Daddy. Cool yeah, that was a big deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it was. You know, daddy Cool being recognised was a good thing. A little bit overdue, yeah. But the thing with ARIA and I'm not trying to pick on them or anything like that, but Australian Record Industry Awards. So they tend to nominate people for the various things if they've got the product and they want to sell it. Now I'm going to be going along to be a part of the APRA Awards. Now, the APRA Awards are the Australian Performing Rights Association and the Songs of the Year are voted for by other songwriters.
Speaker 1:So it's got a lot more.
Speaker 3:To me it's not shonky at all and my daughter, athena, is a part of a band called Gut Health. Remember that band, gut Health everybody. They're kind of big. Watch this space. They're playing in Queensland at the moment. They've been touring in Europe. So, yeah, gut Health. And she's going to be appearing at the APRA Awards at the end of April, so I'm looking forward to going to that.
Speaker 1:Awesome, another feather in your cap. The late great Joe Cocker took your song I Come In Peace.
Speaker 3:Well, he did. It was a song I wrote with Rick Brewster from the Angels right here in Adelaide, and he said we wrote a couple of songs together and I Come In Peace I ooh, I really like this song.
Speaker 3:I'm going to keep it for myself. But it took a few years and I finally did an album and it was the title track and well-produced, a great song. And Joe Cocker's manager was Roger Davies, who's an Australian guy Used to be Sherbert's roadie that's how he started out and then became a manager and Sherbets Roadie that's how he started out and then became a manager and he was the guy that turned Tina Turner's career around. He also Sade and a bunch of people, I think Pink. Oh, I think he was looking after Pink and he was looking after Joe Cocker and he said to Joe I think he saw the video of I Come In Peace. He goes, hang on. Russell Wilson has written this song. You Should Do it and it took, I think, two albums before it finally got on.
Speaker 1:It's a great version.
Speaker 3:And there's good footage of him. There's a couple of videos of him doing it and he did a big tour. It was huge and still huge in Germany when he released that album and he was doing a tour of about 80 dates or something and he was opening every show with Our song I come in peace, which once song I Come in Peace, which, once again, I'm going to sing tonight.
Speaker 1:Yay, but sadly it turned out it was his final single Because we lost him in the December, but it was a bit of a hit in Europe.
Speaker 3:So that was really nice to have someone of his stature. I don't know. Rick Brewster felt the same way too. In fact, rick was so impressed with both versions that the Angels did a version too. Yes, that's on one of their albums.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go. So, speaking of the angels, yeah, you know, aussies tend to do this sort of thing like am I ever going to see your face again?
Speaker 3:oh, yeah yeah, now you've got an actual physical just like the angels that when they first heard that chant. Remember, you're going to see that they go. What do we do wrong? Why are they? Why are they swearing at us? You know, and it turned out there was this thing in mount isa. They were in mount isa and the dj was the one who sort of get the people to do it so did that happen?
Speaker 1:now it's gone nationwide. Well, yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 3:I wasn't aware of this thing, where it occurred and I think it was a queensland university claimed they started it and it's spread all over the nation. It's when Eagle Rock is played, not necessarily by me, but made the record in a pub or a wedding. Particularly at 21st and weddings and all that. The guys drop their pants, not their undies, not their boxers, just their regular pants and dance around their, around their ankles right it's such an awesome thing first time I heard it was sometime in the 90s.
Speaker 3:Right, I'm going. Well, this is weird and it was before the internet had really become blown up, so they can see it all over the place and it's a big thing. But we've got a plan to go for the world, for charity, go for the world record of pants dropping. Oh and and you might hear an announcement about that soon I'm not divulging where it is yet because it hasn't been locked in, but it'll be pretty easy to get the world record because no one's ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah there's zero. Yeah, that's right. You could have like a hundred guys or something.
Speaker 3:But I think we're going for like trying to get a couple of thousand people.
Speaker 1:Oh, I reckon I might know where it is, because there's a place where lots of records are attempted and broken yeah, yeah, well, yes, anyway, yeah yeah all righty, it's a mystery, but you can probably guess still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, cheryl lee.
Speaker 1:I'm going to play joe cocker's beautiful version of I come in peace. And then we're back to say goodbye to ross wilson and give him a few minutes between soundcheck and having to go back on stage now with the peace sneaks at the Bridgeway as we film him for Ryder TV on Channel 44 and 31. You see, me coming.
Speaker 2:You feel like running. That wicked look is in your eyes that brings us to 2023.
Speaker 1:The latest hit, latest single.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did an EP and it was harking back to my early days where I got in my first band and played the harmonica, so I wanted to play a bit more bluesy stuff. I've got four songs on it and the title track is she's Stuck on Facebook All the Time, which is a blues about social media. You know, not necessarily facebook per se, but it mentions a couple of others as well. You know, mentioned well, it already got outdated. It meant twitter, yeah. No, I was really annoyed with my friends, so when I'm seeing it live now, I don't say twitter, I say tick tock, yeah, okay, so we believe there's facebook, there's tick tock, there's Insta and are you going to play that tonight?
Speaker 1:And?
Speaker 3:it's the whole point of it is like the distraction means that I get stuck on Facebook all the time. Ain't got no time for loving. It's always checking up on all the friends. So that's my little dig at social media.
Speaker 1:That's a true blues song. Yeah, lamenting.
Speaker 3:Well, that's the thing there's so many blues songs about.
Speaker 1:I'm not getting enough love. That's all important, just another facet.
Speaker 3:But I've got to say I'm not trying to nail women about this. It's just because I would love a woman to record the answer to it and say he's stuck on Facebook all the time.
Speaker 1:And you're playing that tonight. Yeah, I think we will. Awesome, I think our half an hour is nearly up and I want you to have a little bit of a break yeah, yeah, I gotta work on this yeah, before you start, I'm gonna ask you one more question, um, have you got a non-negotiable on your rider that you have to have or you're not going on?
Speaker 3:not really. No, look, I'm really easy going. I don't go for that kind of stuff. You know, that's my band and I go no moments. No, no, no, it was all in the past. We're mature now Live and learn. We've grown up now. My thing is like I don't want any bumps. I don't want any. We just want to get on stage and have a good time and do our thing, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, awesome, I'm going to let you do that.
Speaker 3:There's no mind games going on.
Speaker 1:So much. All the best for the rest of the tour, and I don't think you're stopping to after Money, money and Rock the Boat.
Speaker 3:Well, I do have a break in between Money, money and Rock the Boat, and that's a thing I do every year. We usually take off August, september, around then, and my wife's family are originally from Greece and we go off to Greece and then a few other places and we have a great time and come back with batteries charged, and one of the reasons we do that time is because everyone's so obsessed with footy that, unless you get some footy gigs like September you can pretty well wipe out, you know.
Speaker 3:So we take that opportunity to go out.
Speaker 1:Good on you. Well, enjoy that, and I'll see you down the front sometime soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yeah, put your dancer shoes on. See you Cut.
Speaker 2:I'll, yeah, put your dancer shoes on. Yeah, see you Cut, I'm going to get your mic off. Yeah, you are listening to Still Rocking it.
Speaker 1:The podcast with Cheryl Lee here it is To take us out the lover's lament. She's stuck on Facebook all the time, hey Fallon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I got the blues, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:You know what the number one cause of the blues is? What Not? You know what the number one cause of the blues is Not getting enough loving.
Speaker 1:You're with Cheryl Lee that radio chick. 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.