How Tony Cook Served His Country and Found Solace in Music

From an early age Tony Cook wanted to learn to play guitar. His mother was a huge Elvis Presley fan and his father loved the Beatles, Slim Dusty & Johnny Cash, which would often be heard blearing out of the jukebox of the family hotel.

Growing up in the outback, his father won an old acoustic guitar in a gambling game, Tony remembers, “it was missing 3 strings and was pretty beat up, but I was desperate to learn to play it" he recalls, "I would spend countless hours trying to figure it out. I wasn’t able to master the instrument until I was a teenager where I was able to purchase a book and I ended up teaching myself."

We moved around a bit growing up, but the outback and the bush was always the one sanctuary where I felt at ease and at peace with the world. Having spent a lot of my childhood in remote places I left school and worked around North western Queensland as a jackaroo on a 40,000 acre cattle and sheep station and also as a roustabout in shearing sheds throughout the region after leaving high school.

I only had dreams of being a shearer but one winter's morning that changed when I went out trying to find a new born calf.

Across the radio was the announcement of the Iraq war, the year was1990 and I thought I should think about joining up and serving my country for a little while before embarking on a career in the bush. I’ll never forget that morning as it was sort of a sliding doors moment which changed the course of my life.

I discussed my future with my mother that Christmas and as much as I wanted to head to Longreach for a learners pen it was decided I would investigate the defence force before making any concrete moves.

I headed to the local recruiting office that Christmas and the first person I spoke to at recruiting was an Airforce fellow who said are you from the country, I said "yeah", he said we like you country boys you go pretty good in defence come with me and let’s have a chat.

Not long after that I found myself at recruiting in Adelaide and I ended up shared a room with the son of a country music icon and legend Terry Gordon, his son was also Terry Gordon Junior. It seemed like the universe had a plan for me.

I served my country for over a decade and had numerous roles, one being a tactical airspace management specialist which involved jumping out of C130 Hercules aircraft with 8/12 Medium artillery regiment within 3RAR That was quiet a rewarding and satisfying job, I really enjoyed my time with army in this role. I went on to do various other jobs within defence and the RAAF retiring in 2006 and from that point on I have focused on developing my music.

In 2007 I played a music festival in NQ where I met a few people who influenced me greatly. The late grate Phil Emmanuel was the headline act at this event along with, Bo Jenkins, Brain Fraser & POP Standen, we all got to know each other pretty well over the years.

I remember after recording the first and title track of my debut album “Laidback Country” which has only recently been released, I received a call from Phil out of the blue. He said, "Tone I like your song mate but it’s missing something" ? I said to Phil that I felt the lead guitar instrumental needed something more. He offered straight away to help me out with the track. I was completely blown away very humbled not to mention incredibly grateful to Phil for his offer. True to his word he played on the single and I have dedicated the album to him in his memory and all he has done for the Aussie music industry.

Fast forward a few years and I’ve been blessed to have had the honour of sharing the stage with some of the countries finest artist, Adam Brand, Travis Collins, James Blundell, Troy Cassar-Daley, & The Mcclymonts.

The debut album has taken 4 years to produce with Simon Johnson from Hillbilly Hut and it’s a big weight off my shoulders. I am really looking forward to getting out and paying live to audiences and showcasing the album.

We’ve released 4 singles off the album to date with all of them charting on national and state airplay charts with one hitting #1 for 6 weeks on Country Tracks Top 40 the national chart.

A lot of what I write about is outback focused. I’m passionate about promoting the bush and it’s culture and I hope I’ve done it proud with some of the music videos we’ve produced with The Filmery, all of which are on youtube and our website.

We’ve been lucky to have some incredibly supportive sponsors come on board and help us over the years namely Dick Smith’s Foods, Richmond, Mckinlay, Flinders & Livingstone Shire Councils, as well as the Queensland RSL and Matilda Poppy.

I’d like to thank my many supporters and followers who share my passion for the bush, I hope to get out and meet as many as possible over the coming 12-18 months.

To find out more head to www.tonycook.com.au keep up to date on tours and news and join the mailing list.