When we talk Jade Hurley tells me it’s been a long time since he’s performed in Tasmania, which is a shame because ‘he loves the place’ and he has Tasmanian connections with as his wife being a former Queenstown girl. He tells me that the history of his wife’s relatives in Tasmania is mind blowing but that’s a story for another time.
Jade was recently in Tasmania to be inducted into the Tasmanian Independent Country Music Awards Hall of Fame and when he heard he was achieving this honour he told his management that maybe it was time to celebrate that accolade with some shows and that is just what he is doing.
Many people will know Jade from his regular appearances on The Mike Walsh show Where he earned himself the moniker of ‘king of country rock’ because his music spans both genres. An impressive history of touring with Johnny Cash and Don Williams is part of his resume.
He would as a child give up his mum’s roast lamb dinner to attend music classes. He was given a choice in those early days to either learn from the nuns of St Joseph or from a 92 year old female music teacher. He chose the latter.
It was when appearing on legendary Johnny O’Keefe’s show ‘Six o’ clock rock’ that Jade learnt the essentials of the industry and became not just a musician but a performer. He was told by Johnny to succeed in the business he needed to have a gimmick, a few ideas were suggested from the wardrobe department including an issue of some green gloves. He declined them he said, because it wasn’t possible to wear them when playing the piano. A solution was floated of cutting the fingers out of the gloves
While discussing that possibility the wardrobe lady was casually asked the colour of the gloves which she answered were a jade green. The astute mind of Johnny O’Keefe said that ‘Jade’ Hurley would sound more a show business name than John Hurley and so a star was born.
Jade has been a supporter of charity thoughout his career and the Starlight Foundation is one of the foremost ones he supports today. You can learn more about their work here
https://starlight.org.au/
You can see Jade at the Wrest Point Casino on Sunday 29 October.
Paula Xiberras
