One Plus One: Murray Cook

Mar 14, 2024

I know you played in New York, shortly after 9/11. Did you feel any kind of change in tone was there, um, yeah, it was a lot more somber. I think when we went and performed there in November, we really felt for those people who we had a very close relationship with in New York. New York was the first place where we had success in the United States, where even before you knew it we were on Disney Channel, which came a little later, we already had an audience in New York.York and we realized it in the Parade of the Day Thanksgiving that all the cops knew who because almost all of us cops were pretty young and had little kids and you know even when the people in the crowd were going, what is it? a wiggle, the police were doing no, that's Murray, that's Jeff, you know, which was yeah, that was really sweet, yeah, really sweet, so The Wiggles were on for 21 years.

I read somewhere that they were practically on tour for 10 months of the year. I think there were about 7,000 shows, even when you love something it must have been pretty exhausting in the end, yeah it was, and the hardest part was being away from our families, you know, we all had, well, three of us had kids. and we had always had I try to work, I mean we had time at home, so when we went to the States, we usually went for six or seven weeks and then we came home and had a week off, so it worked out well, I mean many bands.

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They would tour and just do what for months, you know, it's pretty exciting to tour the United States for the first time, you know, five or six seven eight ten times, but you know when you're in some of the small towns where not a lot of things happen things, it's not as glamorous as people might think and yes, in 2012, Jeff was having some health problems, his back was hurting, he had some problems with his heart, he had a pacemaker installed and it was pretty much clear that he was coming finally wanting to do it and uh and I you know because I was young or I was still quite young in my family um in his teenage years I thought well, if Jeff is going, he might as well go and um, it was a very difficult decision and it was very difficult after um for the first year or so.

I questioned myself a lot. I just thought I made the wrong decision. um, you know, I missed it and um, uh, but I was talking to Lindy. Morrison from the Gober Twins and when the middlemen broke up she said she really struggled with it and said it took her about 10 years to get over it, really yeah, so when it's something it's your life and it's been your life for so long. I mean, obviously it's not the only part of my life because I had family and friends, but it's such an important part of your life that suddenly you don't have it there anymore, even if it's the right decision, it's a big shock to the system. and I was I was pretty lost there for a year or probably two years, so I think that's why the music that I'm making now has been a big change for me before moving on to the music that you're making now.

I ask you: Your daughter is a national wheelchair basketball player. You have a son. Do you have a wife. What was the effect on the family since you were away from home for so long? It was difficult. Know. It was hard for my wife, especially because it was like that. a lot when the kids were younger when The Wiggles started they weren't born so they were born during The Wiggles era um and yeah it was harder and I know my son resented me being away sometimes and um yeah , so it's hard, you know, when there's not two parents there all the time and it was hard for me because I really missed them, but it's also hard to be on tour and do what you do and then come back and, you know. having to change diapers or um, you know, being normal again, yeah, yeah, but yeah, it was harder for them than it was for me, obviously, yeah, so you came back, you say very honestly that you struggled for a year, what did you do with yourself at that time?

I still played some music, I had um uh, I had a cover band called bang shangling that I used to play quite often and that was really good and I was actually with Mark who was the singer in my bands in the '80s and then I just said yes to Nelly to everything, if people wanted me to come and speak somewhere or, you know, like I talked to a couple of times at Macquarie University graduations, I would just do everything because I was thinking what am I going to do? Too young to retire, we talked about it like retiring from The Wiggles, but that didn't mean I was going to retire and go play golf or something.

I don't do that, so yeah, I really had to figure out what I'm going to do. with the rest of my life and when, for example, you appeared on Splendor, that was in 2018. You had an incredible audience. I think you played on AC DC Highway to Hell and for a lot of people it was maybe a shock to see it. all the hair, you know you were like Murray Wiggle growing up in a sense, but the audience was also people who had grown up with The Wiggles and here they were seeing you in a very different way, how did that all come together for you? while you were playing, I've done some really amazing things in my life, that's probably one of my, it's really up there in the, it's certainly in the top five, um, just mind-blowing.

I knew there would be a reaction when it came out because I knew the reaction to the light people video and the Disney video, which is how I got involved with them in the first place and and um and yeah, when they asked me to come and do Splendor I thought, oh, that would be fun and I think Shane, who's the singer, just said, you know, please welcome Murray Wiggle and I came out and I had my guitar, you know, Kim and I looked quite rock and roll, I thought and I knew there would be a reaction, but When I came out, I was really impressed, just the huge raw meat was just phenomenal, it was also a really lovely reaction because it was so warm, it wasn't and I could see the faces.

I was very excited and Later I heard that friends were calling their other friends telling them that they had to come to the main stage with Murray on stage with TC Death Race and um it was the first day of the festival and I think Triple J might have said posted something and said um the most Australian moment of all time has already happened on uh splendor your new album with the soul movers um Bonafide you guys went to some of the key recording studios in the US and even played with some of the famous people. who have played with big recording stars over the years, what it's like to walk into, in a sense, someone else's workspace, it's quite daunting at first, um, we were in the States a couple of years ago and We visited the studios, uh, two of the studios.

Fame and muscle Shoal sounds, just check them out and we met Dan Albac who is from The Black Keys who is pretty famous but the drummer he was using was this guy in his 70s who we started talking to and um. he's a guy named Jane Chrisman who played in Dusty in Memphis and um uh Suspicious Minds in Kentucky Rain and in the ghetto for Elvis and it was also funny because he said, oh, I know the Wiggles, but yeah, he had grandkids, etc., that was it. It was very exciting and then he took us into the studio and we looked around and it was pretty mind-blowing just doing it, so with the seeds they were planted and then we came back.

I think Dan Aerbeck said, are you coming here? we recorded and said, oh, we weren't planning on doing it, but it's a good idea, and so we did it, we started planning and, in August of last year, we came back. It's one of those things that is quite daunting at first. I have to be careful not to get too overwhelmed, especially being a music nerd. I am a fan of this study. Aretha Franklin Studios recorded her first number one hit there, I Never Loved a Man. Wilson Pickett made the land of a thousand dances. Mustang. Sally Hey Jude, yeah, there's a series and some of these guys we played with played on those records, which can be a little overwhelming, but once you get over it, it becomes another workspace, it becomes a wonderful workspace, but you just get to work, record and play.

I can feel your enthusiasm. Oh, I'm still in a way. I'm more excited now when I look back and think: Wow, we really did that! Amazing, I saw a video clip of one of your recent songs for the Soul Movers numbers and you know again, maybe you're on stage, but you look happy, are you, am I, am I really, this is, I'm making this music and en It's a real creative outlet for me too. I'm not playing in someone else's band, which I enjoy playing in other people's bands, but this is my band. I'm Lizzie and I write most of the songs.

She always says that me. I'm the junior partner, she does most of it, but I have a real creative outlet. I feel like this is something that belongs to me and I haven't felt that way since Wiggles, so I'm really enjoying it. and we haven't done it and in some ways it's like the beginning of The Wiggles, we're not, we're not trying to be rock stars, we just love doing it and, you know, doing advertising and things like That just means that if we can become a little more popular, we can continue doing it. If we have an audience, we can keep doing it for as long as we want.

Many people will look at you and say, "You've had a charmed life." You had at least one great career and another that is in development. Now you have made a lot of money. You have made many people happy. I wonder if you see it that way too. Anthony and I were always very good at being aware of how amazing our experiences were, you know, we never took anything for granted, we never expected that there would be, you know, the next Runner shows would be sold out, you know, we always thought this could end at any time. moment, it's the entertainment business, anything could happen. um I feel very lucky um you know I was in the right place at the right time um with the Wiggles we came up with something that captured the imagination of the nation's children and then various Nations' Children and, you know, some of that.

It's just luck, it's just that you get together and there's chemistry with people and you know you come up with something, but you know we always had our hearts in the right place, we always had our brains. in the right place also I think we always thought, you know, this has to be about the kids, not about us, and I think that's why it worked, so I think yeah, I've had a lovely life in some ways, but You know, we work. really tough and I think you know I inherited it from my parents, that kind of work ethic and um uh, so yeah, I'm really happy with the way things went, Murray, do you have any regrets?

I had been better at work-life balance. I wish when my kids were younger I had a little more time with them, but then I see other friends. I talk to other friends who work in a pretty powerful environment. You know, work during the week and, you know, some of them never met their children's teachers because they were never around when the children went to school, you know, they didn't see that part of their children's lives, so I I feel lucky about that in that feeling that even though I was away a lot when I was home, if I was home for a week or two weeks, I was there, you know, I would take them to school, you know, I would do all those things and , um uh, but yeah, I guess I'm sorry I missed certain milestones.

I guess if you were going to end a show and you had the option to choose a song to end the show with, what would that song have been? I'll answer that there are two ways in which there is a The song actually from the first solo movie album that I didn't play on is called "some good reasons" and it's just that it's a great Ender just because it's a great rocker and, you know , Lizzy has an incredibly powerful voice and she just sings this. I go out and go crazy on the guitar on The Wiggles which we've done quite often and we end up with hot potatoes, hot potatoes, wow, because it was a very exciting thing and it was a real feeling of excitement. going through the audience when we said you know it's time for some hot potatoes Murray