'Resting and not in pain': Colleague recalls John Laws’ last days
From humble disc jockey to interviewing every prime minister since Menzies - John Laws' ex-colleague and CEO of Coal Australia Stuart Bocking reveals the man behind the legendary voice.
For seven years he was the “co-driver” on the John Laws Show, an executive producer the King of Radio promoted to an on-air role.
Stuart Bocking, now CEO at Coal Australia, visited Laws at home just days before his death, a final goodbye after a relationship stretching back 26 years.
“I saw him on Tuesday, he was resting and not in pain,” Bocking said. “We shared a couple of in jokes, and that made him laugh. During my time as the co-driver character, he’d make a thing of the Friday race tips I’d give out every week.
“So I said to him ‘you know this is a pretty important visit right here because I’m with you on Melbourne Cup morning’. He had a chuckle at that.”
Bocking was recruited to produce the man behind the golden microphone in 1999. Within months he was invited to banter on air.
Their views and comments continued post-show, frequently over lunch at Darcy’s in Paddington or down on the Woolloomooloo Wharf at Otto or Manta.
“We would often joke that our off-air stuff was the best, but we couldn’t put any of that to air without being sued,” he said.
There was one afternoon when they were with a group dining along the wharf when Laws heard that radio rivals Bob Rogers and Derryn Hinch were eating a couple of restaurants away.
They were not his flavour du jour.
“Next thing John is up and gone, determined to give them a piece of his mind,” Bocking said. “Within 15 minutes he’s returned, regaling us with the story and using a few words that would have required use of the beeps on radio.”
There was also the stoush with former Prime Minister Paul Keating when Laws was commenting on superannuation.
“I get a call on my phone and it’s Paul Keating,” Bocking recalled. “He says ‘John Laws has got that wrong, go and tell him ABC’.
“I’m thinking I’m caught here between these two alpha males, two 1000kg bulls in the top paddock and I’m just the humble EP co-driver.
“I trot up to John and tell him what Keating said. He says: ‘Right, wait for this and let’s see what he’s got to say’.
“John goes back on air and the next second my phone lights up again. It’s Paul Keating. This went back and forth like a tennis match before they resolved to catch up for lunch.”
Asked to describe Laws in three words his former EP said: “Mentor, legend, mate. And for a guy who loved to describe himself as a humble disc jockey, he interviewed every prime minister since Sir Robert Menzies.
“How many in the Canberra press gallery could say that? Whilst he didn’t regard himself as a journalist, he will go down as one of our greatest newsmakers and news breakers.”
There was also the legendary Laws generosity.
He would frequently travel overseas and always return with luxury gifts for his team of around a dozen.
“I’m talking watches, wallets, pens … of very well-known brands,” Bocking said. “Every staff member who worked with him would receive something. Despite all the trappings, despite his fame, despite his wealth, he always understood people.
“He never lost sight of that young bloke who started off reading the odd commercial and getting people’s lunches in regional radio in Victoria. He never forgot that, it shaped who he was, and his listeners loved him.
“When he shifted stations, they all went with him. They didn’t have an affiliation for the station he was on, their loyalty was to John Laws.”
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Originally published as 'Resting and not in pain': Colleague recalls John Laws’ last days
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