Troy Cassar-Daley returns to Mudgee next month on his Greatest Hits tour and it's a family trip with daughter Jem his special guest.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"This time in particular is special on a few levels. Not only am I coming back with a Greatest Hits record that I'm really proud of, which has 42 tracks and is as many as I can fit on, but I also get to bring my daughter along too," he said. "My wife would rather she be at university, but I was the devil's advocate and I got on her other shoulder and said 'come on the road with dad and have a gap-year with me'. And she has loved every minute of it, she's a mind-blowing singer and I'm not a stage dad by any means, but she's been winning hearts all over the place.
"What I love is that I get to go to all of these places every time we do a tour, but I take it for granted where we are pulling up at, now through fresh eyes she's getting out and saying 'wow' and I sometimes have to pinch myself too. And it's so lovely to see that enthusiasm in her."
Although he said that Jem's fresh eyes are spotting some things that are coming back to "haunt" him. "Some people show up in t-shirts where I've still got a mullet and my daughter asks 'dad, what were you thinking with that record cover?' It's on someone's shirt still'," he laughed.
This tour is acoustic shows of greatest hits mixed with stories of Troy's life and musical journey.
"When I get on stage it's tailor-made to each town, Mudgee will get a different show to Bathurst and Dubbo, because everyone's got certain songs they love," he said. "And sometimes they'll whisper under their breath and they don't expect me to go straight into it because I've got a bare-bones setlist, but a setlist can change, and I'm more than happy to say 'I heard someone murmur about that song, let's rip into it'.
"Never underestimate the power of a song, even one like 'Born to Survive' done acoustically, I saw an old bloke crying his eyes out because he had a brother in Mount Isa who has been putting up with all the adversity again [with flooding] but it's the opposite to the drought now.
"So I'm dead-keen to share what history I have in music going right back to the first single that I recorded right through to latest ones and everything in between. And the people of Mudgee will be able to come out and enjoy something that feels like they're sitting around a campfire, because a lot of these songs sound a lot different when they're played like this."
All of Troy's 31 number-one singles are on his new 42-song Greatest Hits, along with signature album tracks and the two new originals 'Wouldn't Change A Thing' and 'Shadows On The Hill', which are already hits, with the latter winning a Golden Guitar Award.
"I couldn't stand the thought that I left one off, I could've put a hundred songs together for this collection," he added. "So the only way to get around it, instead of feeling like I've left kids at the bus-stop, is if I hear someone mention a song at a gig I'll play it - even if it's not on the record."