Lee Kernaghan is back in Sydney where it all began

He may be a country music legend but Lee Kernaghan has an enduring affection for Sydney. Find out why the Harbour City means so much to him.

Iconic Aussie boy from the bush Lee Kernaghan is taking on Sydney.

The country music veteran will play Penrith Panthers this week and has revealed he got his start in the biggest Australian city.

“Strangely enough, it is where it all began for me in Sydney,” Kernaghan told The Daily Telegraph.

“Even though my entire career is based in the bush, it was at 98 Glebe Point Road at Col Joye’s recording studio where I recorded Boys From The Bush, which was my first single and it is still massive after all of these years.

“At the beginning, I towed a horse float full of musical equipment from my home town of Albury up to Sydney and I parked it in the carpark at the Watsons Bay Hotel and the family took me under their wing and gave me a hotel room with just a sink in it and a bed. That’s where I lived trying to get my career going.”

Country music star Lee Kernaghan will play Penrith Panthers this week. Picture: Tom Parrish

That was the breakthrough track on his 1992 debut album, The Outback Club.

Kernaghan, 60, went on to become a pioneer of his generation of country artists and has released a total of 15 studio albums to date.

He plays Penrith Panthers’ Evan Theatre on Thursday and Friday and of course will be front and centre at the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival in January.

“The response has just been epic,” he said, adding when asked what he thinks when looking back at his young self driving to Sydney: “I was very wet behind the years, full of wonder and not expecting it to last very long. It was the wild west back then, stage invasions, pyrotechnics, just mayhem basically and I’ve never stopped encouraging that.”