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RetroRadio – Guy Sebastian

June 28, 2019

RetroRadio is a series of posts of radio interviews from my time working at 98five Sonshine FM covering everything from issues of spirituality to chats with visiting musicians and celebrities.

Hopefully, the interviews spark a few memories and a few thoughts.

These days he’s the newest coach on hit television show, The Voice Australia, but since bursting onto our screens and winning the first series of Australian Idol back in 2003, Guy Sebastian has amassed an amazing list of accomplishments.

He has performed alongside and in front of some of the biggest names in the music business, won a swag of awards and was Australia’s representative at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

Back in my radio days, I had a number of opportunities to chat with Guy. Here are a couple of those interviews.

Firstly, here’s an interview from October 2007. Guy was just about to release his Memphis Album. The wonderful thing about that album was that Guy enlisted the help of top soul musicians such as Steve Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Steve Potts, Lester Snell, Dave Smith, Rick Steff, Jim Spake, Kirk Smothers, Scott Thompson and Howard Lamb.

Many of those musicians wrote and recorded the original versions of the songs on the album with the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Al Green and Wilson Pickett and were members of the MGs, playing with Booker T, and the Blues Brothers Band. Steve Cropper, who co-wrote In The Midnight Hour, Knock On Wood, and (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, also produced the album with Guy.

I remember having a representative of the record company in the studio during our interview. She gasped when Guy revealed that some of those giants of the industry would be his backing band for a tour early in 2008.

The only downside of having Guy live in the studio was that he had a terrible flu, which I then managed to catch.

Listen to what he had to say about his music all those years ago using the media player below.

In October 2009 I had the opportunity to catch up with Guy again. Once again we talked about his musical journey and his album at the time, Like it Like That.

Once again he was a delight to interview. I was particularly encouraged, and a little embarrassed, by his final words to me in the interview. I guess he enjoyed the interview as much as I did.

Just click play and enjoy another catch up with Guy Sebastian.

[Note: All RetroRadio interviews on RodneyOlsen.net are a snapshot of the time they were recorded. We all grow and change and so the opinions and thoughts of those in the interviews at the time of recording may or may not necessarily be the same as they are today.]

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Like It Like That

October 28, 2009

by Rodney Olsen

9 Comments

He’s just turned 28 and his music keeps getting better. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he breaks the lucrative US market.

You’d have had to be living under a rock in Australia to have not heard of Guy Sebastian. From his rise to fame on the first season of Australian Idol to his recent, incredible, number one single Like It Like That, he’s certainly enjoyed the popularity his talent deserves.

But in the US it’s a different story. Guy recently found himself playing to a room of just eight people in a bar in New York.

I played a residency in that bar for a month, and no one had any idea who I was, but it grew from a few people to a few hundred people. The whole experience of doing that has been so satisfying. It’s been really good for my soul.

I spoke to him this morning during my radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM about the runaway success of his current single, Like It Like That, and about the album of the same name. You can hear the interview by clicking the play button of the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I had the privilege of seeing Guy in concert some time back when he toured with the likes of Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn in his band. The respect he receives from such musical greats reinforces his reputation as an extremely talented musician, singer and performer.

I’m sure that the best is yet to come from Guy Sebastian but it’s still hard to imagine how he’s going to top his wonderful new album. It’s certainly going straight to my iPod.

If you like the single, you’ll love the album …. and it would seem we all like the single.

Guy Sebastian’s new single, ‘Like It Like That’, has reached the number one position on the National ARIA singles chart, the national radio airplay chart and it has also reached the number one position on the digital iTunes chart. This is Guy Sebastian’s fourth chart-topping single, making him the only Australian Idol participant to have achieved such a feat. This result sees Guy Sebastian as Australia’s third best single chart topper this decade after Kylie Minogue and Delta Goodrem. Guy Sebastian comes in second to John Farnham for the most number one ARIA singles in history for Australian solo male acts.

Guy will be touring Australia in February before returning to the US to let the world know just how good he is. You can keep up to date with what he’s doing at his website.

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Guy Sebastian proves he’s the real deal

March 24, 2008

by Rodney Olsen

11 Comments

You don’t get the true legends of soul music travelling half way around the world to serve as a backing band for someone unless they’ve proven that they have enormous talent.

Pauline and I went to the Perth Concert Hall on Saturday for the final show of Guy Sebastian‘s Memphis Tour. His touring band featured members of the legendary MGs.

You might know Steve “The Colonel” Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn from the Blues Brothers movie or from their work with Booker T and the MGs. Steve Cropper co-wrote songs like Dock of the Bay with Otis Redding as well as co-writing classics like Midnight Hour and Knock on Wood.

They brought fellow Memphis musicians, Lester Snell and Steve Potts with them to Australia and rounded out the band with some amazing Australian musicians.

They performed songs like Soul Man, Hold On I’m Coming, Hard To Handle, Under the Boardwalk, Lets Stay Together and finished up with a fantastic version of Shake Ya Tail Feather.

A highlight for me was when the band gave us a very tasty rendition of the Booker T and the MGs classic instrumental, Green Onions.

I’ve been to dozens of concerts and seen some of the world’s best performing and I’d have to say that this concert would be up there with the very, very best of them. When you get a band like that together the music is never in doubt. Match that level of musicianship with the extraordinary vocal talents of Guy Sebatian and you have an act that would impress audiences anywhere in the world.

If all you’ve ever seen or heard of Guy is his Australian Idol performances and his pop hit singles, as impressive as they are, you haven’t even begun to discover just how good he really is.

Looking around the audience it was obvious that it was a mixture of people who were there to see Guy and those who were there to see some living legends of soul music. I’m sure that those who simply wanted to see the band went home as true Guy Sebatian fans and that Guy’s fans went home totally sold out to soul music.

I interviewed Guy on 98.5 Sonshine FM back in October last year about The Memphis Album and about the upcoming tour. Back then he revealed that the MGs would join him on tour for the first time on Perth radio. The picture in this post was taken at the time of that interview. You can hear about his experience recording the album and working with the legends of soul music by clicking the play button on the audio player in this post.

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