Covering country miles

As one of Australia's biggest country music stars, with another fresh batch of golden guitars from this year's Country Music Awards in Tamworth, he spends a lot of time travelling.  That's one of the reasons he is keen on cars and, as he faces the Planet Country Australia Tour which kicks off in Tasmania this month and finishes in Mudgee in Australia, is happy to talk about his passion — including a long-time love for Toyota four-wheel drives.

“My very first car was an olive green Austin 1800 Mark II. I was 17 and it cost me $600 – I saved up for it and I paid cash. I thought I was the king of the world. It had really comfortable seats – the back seats were really comfortable, but I wasn’t able to put them to any good use. I was a late bloomer in that regard.

I loved that car but it broke down all the time. I remember calling my dad on several occasions – ‘Dad I’m stuck! Can you help me?’ I remember one night I was coming back from a gig, I was the resident performer at the Greenmount Resort at Tweed Heads, I was coming home in the rain and she just conked out. Everything fogged up and she stopped. I wasn’t really a tinkerer – I had a tool box in the back and I would change the odd spark plug but that was about it.

I went from that to a little red Cortina TE – which the back seat of that was more successful. That was a beauty but my real love and appreciation for motoring began when I started driving a LandCruiser.  My first Land Cruiser was a 1996 80 Series.

I was coming through the Gold Coast hinterland and there were storms about and there was flooding – I had to cross a creek near Canungra and I got halfway through the creek and she stopped. I started to contemplate certain parts of my life and questioned aspects of my own intelligence. The flood waters were swirling by the old 'Cruiser, but I cranked her over and the big old turbodiesel kicked in and I drove straight out of it. She didn’t let me down.

I don’t think I will ever sell that vehicle. She’s done over a quarter of a million kilometres. She’s like a member of my family. It would be a sacrilege to sell her. I love her.  Slim Dusty used to drive a 'Cruiser as well and he would often comment to me that he would set off from the east coast of Australia and cross the breadth of the nation and the only thing that would stop the 'Cruiser was the Indian Ocean.

One of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened in a motor vehicle.  It was early '90s – my second record ‘Three Chain Road’ had just come out – I was recording a song for drought relief called ‘Save the Land’. Trisha Yearwood was in town – she wasn’t married to Garth Brooks at that time – and I asked her if she would sing with me on this fund-raising song. She said she would love to help out.

One minute we were doing The Midday Show and the next we were in a studio in Kings Cross recording this song together – it was an amazing day.  At the end of the session I offered Trisha and her publicist a lift back to their hotel. She accepted. So we went and got into this Commodore I was driving at the time.

I was backing out of the studio carpark and I clipped the side of the Commodore against this big metal post and it peeled open the Commodore like a sardine can. It rolled it back and I didn’t realised it had happened and I’ve got Trisha Yearwood in the car!  So we got out of the car and looked at the damage and Trisha said “You know Lee, we might just take a cab.” It was dreadfully embarrassing.

One of the greatest road trips I’ve ever taken was in my 78-series LandCruiser ute. I often joked to people if it was a woman I’d marry her. I was so in love with that vehicle.  I had an Engel fridge in the back it was set up for anything in the outback. I went out on a song writing trip out past Charleville, We pushed on over to Innamincka and camped on the banks of Cooper Creek and then headed up to Birdsville.

I pretty much wrote an entire album – Electric Rodeo. Not long after that my wife gave birth to our second son Rock – and we all couldn’t fit in the vehicle anymore so I had to sell it.  The only time my lips have quivered and tears welled was when I sold the vehicle and this young bloke from Kilcoy drove it out of my driveway and out of my life.