Man in Black tour hits Adelaide on June 1, starring Tex Perkins

TEX Perkins obviously enjoys singing Walk The Line, but he’s never liked waiting in one ... and has lived to regret it.

Rachael Tidd as June Carter and Tex Perkins as Johnny Cash. They’ll be in Adelaide on June 1 at the Festival Theatre for The Man In Black tour. Picture: Prudence Upton

TEX Perkins obviously enjoys singing Walk The Line, but he’s never liked waiting in one ... and has lived to regret it.

It was the early ’90s and Tex had just seen the legendaryJohnny Cashperform in Sydney.

“He did a meet and greet afterwards and there was a big long line and I thought ‘nah’ ... I hate queues, I hate standing in line for anything, but I do regret not spending that 20 minutes standing in that line,” Tex says, adding “that’s as close as I got” to meeting Johnny, who died in 2003.

Frontman of Aussie bands such asThe Cruel Sea, Tex is reprising his Helpmann-award winning role of Johnny in The Man in Black. With the role of his wife June to be played by Rachael Tidd, the show is touring nationally from May.

US singer-songwriter and guitarist Johnny struck a chord with Tex when he was just six. “I heard a A Boy Named Sue on the radio ... an intriguing song with lots of grubby lyrics and it’s kind of funny,” he says, adding: “The main thing that piqued my interest was it had a line bleeped out ... it was the first time I had ever heard words bleeped out because they were supposedly too obscene.

“If I can spend a little time on the psychiatrist’s couch here, that started the ball rolling for me and my interest in the dark side.”

Tex is looking forward to visiting his Adelaide haunts while here next month for Womad with Tex, Don and Charlie and on The Man in Black tour: “I like to take a walk in the parklands and Adelaide Central Market and have a late night drink at the Grace Emily.”