Tex Perkins doesn’t need much introduction, he’s been fronting local rock outfits for over 28 years now - in the more mellow collaboration The Cruel Sea, facing his inner demons in the wild rock’n’roll Beasts of Bourbon and fearless solo outings with The Dark Horses and more recently with his tongue firmly in cheek with his Ladyboyz.
Taking a somewhat different tact this time with his musical career, the tall, quick-witted front-man has jumped on board for the theatre production of The Man In Black, The Johnny Cash Show. The show is a musical adventure interweaving the legendary tale of Cash and his four-decade long life and journey with his many and greatest hits.
The production has delighted audiences so far in Melbourne and Brisbane and there are plans to expand to other capital cities and over the pond for our Kiwi friends. Perkins kindly sat down with Vega recently and revealed how he became involved with the production team.
“It was early last year, and I needed a reason to be in Melbourne. My football team [St Kilda] was doing really well, and I thought ‘gotta get to Melbourne, gotta be a reason to put myself in Melbourne for a long period of time’, also I have some family down there that I would have liked to have seen.”
He smiles “Minutes later, the phone rings! The voice at the end asks ‘would you like to be in a theatre production - the life and times of Johnny Cash? I said ‘YES’ at once! Agreeing to it rather quickly and thoughtlessly, before I checked any of the credentials of anybody connected with the show, I was on board.”
The transition from musician and front-man to theatrical performer has seemed to have come easily to Perkins with the familiarity with Cash’s long back catalogue. One of his first bands as a 17-year-old, Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums, many years ago played predominantly Cash covers in dingy pubs all over Brisbane and since then, whether it is the swaggering Beasts front-man to the Cruel Sea crooner, Perkins has entertained the audience with not just song.
He explains about his first experience with Cash’s music, “...it wasn’t prog-rock. It didn’t seem difficult and also the themes of his [Cash] music there’s a lot of drinkin’ and drug takin’, [laughs] and killing people, and that seemed appealing to a 17-year-old, still does really!”
“Most of it was done with a sense of humour, even the dark stuff; there was cleverness or a wit to the writing but always very simple as well.”
Perkins’ career has taken him around the country countless times and overseas to Europe and America playing to audiences ranging from 50 to 5,000 people on any given night, he exposed the difference between jumping on stage following a set-list that is likely to change each night to preparing and performing a semi-scripted production on the same stage night after night.
He laughs, “Well, I thought the repetition that was going to be the greatest challenge for me, we were doing the same thing, at the same place, same people... in Brisbane we did it for two months. So that seemed like the greatest challenge I could face, not only in my career but in my life! He cheekily adds, “not only that, but it was in Brisbane! It was like a weird time warp, I started singing Johnny Cash songs in Brisbane, and here I am 28 years later singing Johnny Cash songs.
For over two hours, The Man In Black explores Cash’s life through song and features many of the hits you expect, such as Folsom Prison Blues, Get Rhythm, I Walk The Line and Ring of Fire along with Perkin’s co-star, Rachael Tidd who brings the love element into the show, playing June Carter-Cash.
“...there’s improvisation as well as scripted dialogue ... there’s room for it to be different each night, and also we change the set, there’s about ten songs that you could not get away with not playing, but then there’s a whole heap of songs that we rotate, just to keep it fresh.”
Playing seasons in Melbourne, Brisbane and now Sydney’s Opera House for most of the month of February to enchanted audiences and garnering positive reviews in those cities, you could expect The Man In Black show to take on bigger audiences, perhaps giving the ABBA musical, Mamma Mia a kick up the bum, both here in Australia and overseas?
Perkins snorts with laughter, “We’re up for it all! We’re going... overseas... to Tasmania! And New Zealand! Then we’re back in Melbourne at the Athenaeum, where we started.”
All just in time for the footy season!
Don’t miss The Man In Black, The Johnny Cash Show at the Sydney Opera House, Playhouse. The season runs from Tuesday February 9 to 28. Check out the Sydney Opera House website for performance and ticket details.