Slim Dusty
King Of Aussie Country Music

Slim Dusty is an Australian country music legend and probably one of the best known Australian singers of all time.

That's a big claim but looking back over a career that spanned some sixty years, included countless hit records, numerous awards, regular presentations on radio and later TV, thousands of concerts and personal appearances, you begin to understand the enormous body of work that he produced in his lifetime.

The Slim Dusty story in fact begins back in the 1940's on a remote dairy farm in Kempsey, New South Wales when a 10-year-old boy, David Gordon Kirkpatrick began dreaming of becoming a country music singer. He decided on a 'stage' name "Slim Dusty" and set about to live his dream.

Even the most optimistic ten year old would never have imagined though that he would be far more successful than in his wildest dreams and he would establish himself as a household name, become the country music voice of the nation and indeed the chronicler of Australian history in song.

Slim always held on to those early visions he had of writing and singing about the real Australian bush because during his lengthy career, he always stayed in touch with his audience.

He travelled widely and even at the height of his fame and success he always made time to visit some of the smaller country towns with smaller audiences in the Australian outback.

Many of his fans felt that he was one of their mates and his songs "just a good yarn you might hear from a mate at the pub, around a campfire in the bush or at a back yard barbie".

He once described his music as "songs about real Australians... I have to be fair dinkum with my audience. I can't see any other way of doing it," he said. "You have to believe in what you are singing about."

My first recollection of hearing Slim was in 1958 when he became the first Australian to have a number one hit record on the pop music charts and became the only Australian to ever receive a 78rpm Gold Record for 'A Pub With No Beer'.

He was also the first Australian to have an international hit song, (Pub With No Beer) and was the first singer in the world to have his voice beamed to earth from space when American astronauts played Slim Dusty's recording of Waltzing Matilda from the space shuttle 'Columbia' as it passed over Australia back in 1983.

I recall interviewing Slim as a young and very inexperienced radio announcer at Radio 5AU in Port Augusta in South Australia in 1965. I recall how nervous I was of interviewing this country music legend, but Slim, realizing how green I was basically took over the whole process and the interview went extremely well. He was such a gentleman and a total professional!

During his amazingly successful career spanning over six decades, Slim's continued popularity saw him rewarded with more Gold and Platinum Awards for sales of his singles, LP's, cassettes, CDs, videos and DVD's, than any other artist in Australian music history!

He also received an unequalled 37 Golden Guitar Awards, the top country music award in Australia, two ARIAs (Australian Recording Industry Association awards), and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and the Australian Country Music Roll of Renown.

Slim received an MBE and an Order of Australia for his long time services to Australian entertainment and in 1999 Prime Minister John Howard named Slim Dusty 'Australia's Father of the Year' and 'Senior Australian of the Year'. There were many other awards and honours which he received throughout his lifetime but far too many to name here!

Slim Dusty, Australia's best known and much loved country music legend, passed away at the age of 76 on September 19, 2003.

But the Slim Dusty legend continues. His music is still regularly played on the radio and sales of his music continues even today almost 10 years after his death.

Slim recorded absolutely hundreds of wonderful songs and you can get them all from iTunes by clicking on the button below.