LiveWorld Transcripts

World Wide Leukaemia Fund presents

Lee Kernaghan
Australian country music star

September 13, 2000

Australian country music star Lee Kernaghan answers questions about his music and his work with sick children, including the his latest effort with the WWLF Great Australian Adventure to raise money for children with leukemia around the world.

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WWLF: Welcome to chat with country music star Lee Kernaghan about life in outback Australia and Australian country music. Lee is well known for helping sick children. He is appearing on Talk City to promote the Great Australian Adventure competition that will raise funds to help improve the treatment of young people with leukemia worldwide. Welcome, Lee!

Lee Kernaghan: Hello, everyone! I've never done this kind of thing before. I'm really glad to be a part of this, and I think it's a great cause to support. I thank everybody for logging on, and I'm looking forward to talking to you all about anything you want to know about me, Australia, and country music here.

Danny08: What's you favorite song off your latest album, "Hat Town"?

Lee Kernaghan: Danny, I think my favorite song is the title "Hat Town." It's one of those songs that I like to sing. I usually open my show with "Hat Town," and it's become a bit of a theme song for me.

Jon: Do you think there are any differences between the music industry in Australia and the US? Do you favor one over the other?

Lee Kernaghan: Well, jon, I grew up listening to American country music, and that's where my love affair with country music began. Listening to Waylon, Hank Jr., David Alan Coe, Merle Haggard, and that's how I got into singing country just from being inspired from the American artists. And back in the early 90s, I recorded my first album called, "The Outback Club." My music is very much based and inspired from America, but lyrically, I write about Australia, our way of life down here, and the people and the places that I see when I travel around the nation. The industry here is a lot smaller. Our entire population is only 20 million people, so there are a lot of wide-open spaces, but country people love country music. When I'm touring through the outback, I'll often play to tens of thousands of people. A couple of weekends ago, I did a show in Gympie, Queensland, and there were over a 100,000 people at the concert. I wasn't the only artist on the bill. Gary Allen from the U.S. along with Australia's top country artists was there.

Mack83dad: If you could pick one music artist that has influenced your career the most, who would that be?

Lee Kernaghan: That's a tough question! My father, Ray, is a country singer out here as well, and I really learned the ropes from my Dad. I loved the outlaw movement of the late 70s coming out of Texas, and in the 90s, I thought that Garth Brooks was and still is one of the all-time greats. His songs are what life is all about, and I take my hat off to Garth!

Mystic: What advice would you give to a young musician trying to make it big on the country-western scene?

Lee Kernaghan: My advice would be to write songs; try and write your own songs. It's often hard to do that on your own, and I really believe in the talent bank concept. So I would encourage a young artist to surround themselves with as many other songwriters (good ones) that they can find, and learn what you can from the songwriters that you admire most. But I really feel it can be the key to great success. The other thing is to just practice! Practice, practice and practice! Singing lessons, guitar lessons, piano.it all helps. I think it's important to really believe in your heart and soul that you can make it happen, and it's important to remind yourself every day that you're going to do it. And if you stick with it, I'm sure that eventually you'll make it.

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