Now I've got a ripper for you today, as we shine the spotlight on an ordinary do is he doing extraordinary things? A fellow called Andy Sashan not a household name, but jeeves played with some He's a bass guitarist toured with some of the biggest names in music. We're talking about here, Billy Thorpe, Rose Katou, amongst others, Shanai Twain, and his success is unsurprising when you hear some of his work like this. I'm one of those people that
could listen to someone play the bass guitar forever. I just it's wonderful. Currently playing his trade with the one and only Billy Joel if you don't mind Billy Joel. And we know we mentioned a few weeks ago Billy's not well and that's how we became aware of Andy. After my listener Tom, and good on you, Tom. He's a made of ban is. He called in to tell us that Billy wasn't well. I wanted to find out
more about the Andy Sshon story. Here's some of his tales playing in New York City and around the world. I'm delighted to say we find him in the Big Apple today and he's on the line. Andy, What a delight to meet you on the telephone. I hope things are good.
Look, it's great, nice to meet you, sir. How's my wonderful city. I flew into Sydney for the first time in ten years in December, and when you look out of that plane window and see the harbor, it just takes your breath away. I mean, I live there from eighty four to ninety seven, and it's still just one of the goat I mean, top five great cities in the world, of the ones I've seen. But I'm good. I'm actually not in New York City, which is one
of my other favorite cities. I'm about one hundred and ten miles because I've been here too long now north of the city on a beautiful little thirty acre again, been here too long, thirty Acre Lake, and it's the sun is setting and it's gorgeous as the sun is well and truly up in Sydney beautiful.
Yeah, it's up at sixteen to agreed, it's a cool day here, but it's pretty clear outside. I guess always we started at the beginning, and at some point you thought, when you saw a bass guitar somewhere or a guitar. Gee, I might give that a go ad. Did it start? Was it family that encouraged you or something you just wanted to do?
Yeah? Look, my dad was an amateur player, a trumpet player, played violin piano. He started me on piano when I was like six, and so I did classical piano until I was fifteen and sort of taught myself guitar and had actually had a gig with my dad where he asked me to read some Herb Albert tunes. I think I was thirteen, and it's the same son as a guitar, just an octavelowa. Read your way through it, you'll be fine. And that was it. That was the beginning of the
love affair. And so I played around Adelaide where I grew up, you know, sort of four or five nights a week from fourteen till I was eighteen. And then I went and got a real job for a while in marine biology at the University of Adelaide, until I sat my folks down, made them cry and told them I was off to Sydney to join Roase Tattoo.
If that's not the best story in the history of stories, I don't know what is how did you get to who did you know in Rose Tattoo? How did that happen?
I didn't know anybody. I didn't know anybody. I cold called every management company in Sydney and Melbourne. And I love the Tats. I remember the first time I heard rock and Roll out Law. Yeah, on countdown. I ran down the hallway and turned the corner and saw the television were like, oh my god, they're animals, but man, can they rock? So that was that was twenty one, I guess I was nearly twenty two and I joined
the Tats, and you know, my father wept. He said like, I never would have started you on piano if it means, you know, you're going to give up the marine biology job and off of Sydney. But you know, first time on countdown. He got over that pretty quickly and he was supportive, you know, his entire life of what I was doing. So yeah, that's how it started. And one thing led to another, and it was Rose tattooed to Swanny to James Rain's you know, my own thing, and on and on.
I think I've got rock and Roll out Law on a forty five somewhere, but I've got just this image of your old man saying MC kid's on campdown wonderful.
Exactly that you know he would be if we were playing an Adelaide, whatever band I was in passing through Adelaide, you know, you go there for the weekend and play four or five nights, and on Sunday night there was one venue, the Tivoli Hotel, and I'd go home to mom and Dad's for dinner on the Sunday night, and on the way out, I'd always say, you know, my dad want me to put your name on the door, and so no, I know, no, Sonny, I've got to work. I've got to work right now. As I walk out
and go, you know, just in case. Sure enough, you could see the front door from the stage and they were like, you know, nine hundred thousand crazy ROAs tattoo fans and my dad Max would walk in like you know, three songs into the set and stage. It's a great memory.
That's beautiful, mate, it really is. And you've got to be I mean, I don't know, but you must be to have been able to play for so long with that and those wonderful people in Australia. You must have really been at the forefront of bass playing in Australia. You must have been so.
So here's the thing, you know, I've always been a guy that never I didn't care about being a virtuoso. I cared about playing in a great band. And I've had that the joy of doing that my entire career, which is now forty years, you know, I mean from Rose Tattoo to then I was Sweany for a little while, and then James Rain when he first turned solo for those first two albums up until nineteen ninety. Then I went out of my own as a frontman singer in a band called Judge Mercy, which was kind of a
hard rock band. We opened for like iron Maid and an AC DC what and then hang on.
Let's not air brush this mate, that's enormous.
No, no, it was great. I gave it. I gave it four or five years that we had an album and an EP and it didn't work in the end, but it was no regrets. And then back to base. It was back to like you know, Dragon Billy Thorpe. And then in ninety seven a buddy of mine and made of mine that I'd worked with in Australia, Noel Rush, said, look, you know, why don't you, why don't you roll the dice over here? My couch is your couch, you know,
come over and roll the dice. And I did, and you know it basically did what I when I left Adelaide and moved to Sydney, I just I just called every management company in the United States from Aida z and and I got to l for John Landau, who managed Bruce Springsteen and Shania Twain. And the reception said, oh, we might be looking for someone for Shania Twain. I had no idea who that was. I looked over my mate, no, because she wasn't she hadn't released the big, the big,
you know, come on. And so I sent my stuff through and you know, because of because of the awareness of bands like Rose Tattoo and Ice House, who I'd recorded with, and and Billy Thorpe, you know, my stuff got listened to. And then I auditioned, you know, with Mutt Lang, the great hard rock yeah who did a C D C. And deeth Leppard and Shaniah and let me just you know, this is what sums up my upbringing in Australia. After I'd played the first hour or so, he came out to me and said, New Izzies, you
played different to any other musicians in the world. Why do you think that is? And I said, well, you know, I figure you worked with the best rock band from our country, you know ac DC. You know those guys played, you know, ten twelve shows a week, doubles on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. I got to play six nights a week, you know, pretty much my entire career. And that makes you match fit. And you don't get that in a rehearsal room. And you couldn't do that in Los Angeles
or New York or London. But in Australia you had our pub rock circuit and you went out and you played six nights a week, forty five weeks a year, and that's what made makes us play a little bit differently. I think the match fit well.
But I'm loving talking to you. I've got to ask you some questions that are probably on the list I need to tick off. Tell me about the biggest show and biggest crowd you've played in front of.
In front of the Colisse in Rome with Billy Joel, I think it was two thousand and eight, two hundred and fifty thousand people in the crowd and live streamed live streams on Italian television. You can see it on YouTube. Funny because we were on a turntable with Brian Adams when on first and then the stage would turn around and then we were set up, so it was a
quick change. But during the be our opening song or there's a bald eagle just swimming over the lake, I'm looking at here, it's so gorgeous, and go and hit the wrong button and we got halfway through the first song in the stage started to rotate again around the wrong way and all the microphone leads. But you can find that on YouTube, just look up Billy Joel Rome. So that was the biggest one and a spectacular show.
Wow, how did you get to play with Billy?
I was already in Chennaia. Twain's band had been for a year and a half and I was New York based and we had mutual friends. He'd actually tried to get me to fill in with him back in ninety three when he was in Australia on tour and his bass player had to go home because his parent had died. I think and I missed a call. I didn't have a cell phone. Didn have a mobile and so I missed four hours of messages on my answering machine when
I got home to my place in Sydney. And at that point they had to go with the guy from the opening band, so I had a chance in ninety three. So he was aware of me. He was aware that through mutual friends, I was with Shanaia, which in the late nineties was the biggest scene going album in the world, and so he just asked me to fill in and do a couple of songs in the studio with him that we used for Runaway Bride or something, and then his guy had to take two shows off. He had
another opportunity. Billy was talking about maybe winding it down, and I filled in. I cold filled in, like I finished the Shania Twain tour and a Sunday after two years of solid touring with her, learning Billy songs in the back of the tour bus and flew into Saint Louis and with no rehearsal and just went up and did it. You know, I did my homework, but at soundcheck Billy was like, what do you need to run? It's all about you. Do they thank you for helping out.
I'm like, they haven't got it. We're pretty much you know up, you know what creek without a paddle. And so we played Cream most of sound Chick and halfway through the set, and I had a lot of helpful queuing from the other band members, and but halfway through the city just leaned at the guitar play and made two quick downstrokes with his hand and launched into Good Times Bad Times by led Zeppelin, which, luckily I knew what he liked. I'd ask people, what else does he like? Kream,
Hendrix and Zeppelin? So I touched on that song. So in front of seventeen thousand people, we rocked Good Times Bad Times. And I swear that's why I got the gig, Not because I knew how to play piano, man, because I knew how to play leads.
Oh that is amazing. Oh mate.
So I've been with him now for twenty twenty five years.
Ah, that's extraordinary. And when and when he I'm assuming he does the band intro, does he have special words for you? Are you the are you the RZ? Or how does he refer to you?
Now? Always? You know, all the way from Adelaide Australia, please work on the base because I always mentions my hometown always does in I think when we played the MCG back in twenty two, he launched into waltzing Matilda, oh no before. Yeah, he does that from time to time as well. Yeah, he's just the best, the best guy in the world to work for. I love him so much.
Do you pinch yourself every day?
I know that I am so lucky that I've been doing this professionally now for forty years, and I just it's what I absolutely love doing. I do it that the joy of playing with those musicians, with his band, specifically. I know that there's you know, this talk that things might be, you know, with his health issues and stuff.
I don't believe we're done done, but the biggest tragedy would be and I know he's going to be okay health wise, but if that band doesn't get to play together again, that will be a tragedy because is to be a part of that collective, of that group of musicians where the sum of the past is way more than what we are as individual players. We're good musicians, We're a fantastic band and I love playing in that band so much.
Mate, you are an inspiration. I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon on YouTube watching Billy Joel Live as a result of this conversation. And I've got a listener who's a wiggle, Greg Page, who says, thanks so much for having Andy on. What a great story. It's been great to hear you got connected with him over the previous weeks. I've been following along. He sounds like such a great human being. And you know what, mate,
without you know whatdding in your pocket. I've watched a few of your interviews on YouTube, and my executive producer Nelson, who had a chat with you, tell me what a great Australian story and just what a brilliant bloke you are. Continued great success made and I hope we can keep in touch.
Thanks. Look, look, it's been a great journey. It's not over yet. I know my boss, the greatest boss I've ever had, is going to get well. I don't think he's prepared to hang it up yet. I think he's going to be fine eventually. I think what he wants is just a clean slate and to go like I feel great now, let's do some stuff again. I hope that's the case. But no matter what happens, I'm not done. I'm just still just I can't believe I'm saying this
up before years. I'm just getting started. I still love it so much. Been a pleasure to chat to you.
You too, mate, and stay well, let's keep in touch. Thanks Andy, Andy, Sir Sean, Wow, Well, you know sometimes we'd write in an introductory paragraph or two, this is a ripper, I am. I'm not speechless, but some of those stories, wow,