Andy Lee tells how he made it and footballers he wouldn’t want a daughter to marry

Andy Lee reveals how he nearly died, how pop music made his career and who he would and wouldn’t want a daughter to date.

Andy Lee posing at the Osbourne Hotel, Brisbane 17th of May 2018. Andy is in Brisbane for the official launch of the new Talkin 'Bout Your Generation. (AAP Image/Josh Woning)

There are people you meet, and instantly like. Andy Lee is one of them.

We met years ago in South Melbourne in a pub when “Hamish and Andy” were on top of the radio world. He couldn’t have been more low key, humble or interested. 15 years later, nothing has changed. We talked about his beloved Blues, a near death experience as a one year old, falling out of accountancy and into entertainment, a chance meeting with Hamish, leaving his email on a napkin, Frank Stallone and a trip to Vegas.

‘Brendan Fevola ... wouldn’t be a father’s first choice’

HM: Andy, if you had a daughter that was 25, and she came home and said to you, “Dad, I’m engaged to a Carlton player” ... and it can be a player from any era, who do you hope it is?

AL: Michael Jamison! He’s intelligent, and he’s a gentleman. I could have said Jordy Russell as well. Those two from that era are just nice chaps, smart guys, and up for a laugh!

HM: Solid choices…..

AL: It sounds a bit like I’ve been wanting to date those blokes … and just for clarity, Brendan Fevola would be right at the bottom of my list, and not that I don’t like Fev, but I think even he would acknowledge that he wouldn’t be a father’s first choice!

HM: Make a case for Carlton in 2021 to play finals.

AL: I’ve been wrestling with this one. There’s been weeks where I’ve thought, we’re definitely in the finals, and a couple of weeks later I’ll think, maybe not. I feel like we’ve got one of, if not, the strongest backlines in the comp. Jacob Weitering has become a menace down there, supported by Liam Jones, and we have Saad and Docherty off both sides now. Plowman, Marchbank,….we’re really shored up down there, and it’s exciting. We still need a bit of midfield depth, but these younger guys are coming through now. Zac Williams is a nice inclusion. Carlton just missed out on the eight by one game last year, we’ve brought in better cattle, and the young guys are only getting better. Surely, maths and data says, we are a red hot shot!

HM:You should work on our footy coverage.

AL: (laughs) I would love to do that at some point. The problem is, footy is very divisive. I was on SEN the other day, and someone said, “If it was like the IPL and you had to pick your players, who are you going to purchase?” I said Max Gawn, Dusty Martin and Sam Walsh from Carlton. The amount of abuse I copped for leaving out Nat Fyfe – you don’t get this with what Hamish and I do! We’re arguing about what the most famous fruits are! There’s some passion about whether strawberries should be up there, but it’s clearly apples, oranges and bananas, then daylight.

‘I nearly died’

HM: Hard to argue. A change of pace — are you lucky to be alive?

AL: I am. And I would like to say I am because of my toughness and resilience but I can’t remember it at all. I was only one at the time.

HM: And knowing who you are, you know that there was no toughness or resilience involved!

AL: (laughs) You know me well! There’s a thing called an epiglottitis, which I believe is what makes us hiccup. It’s that little flap that directs traffic, the flap that decides whether the food goes into your stomach. It swelled up, and I couldn’t breathe at all. That was a bit of a surprise for mum and dad! They rushed me to hospital. My parents are both primary school teachers, and I think my dad is the nicest human in the world. I know everyone is fond of their fathers, but he really is a super nice man. Mum said she’s never seen him angry, but he was racing to the hospital and was pulled over by the police for speeding. The police officer said, “Can you get out of the vehicle?” My Dad said, “My son is about to die. He’s blue, look at him in the back”. The police officer said, “Well he’s not dead yet!”.

HM: No…

AL: Yep. My mum said that is the only time she’s seen dad get angry and use some awful language. Times have certainly changed since 1982, but that was something that set my dad off.

HM: If you were a few minutes later, there was a chance there was no more Andy Lee. Was it that close?

AL: It was, it was a very close run thing. Something very sad about that situation, which I only learnt later in life, was only a few months later, a very similar thing happened to our neighbour. Her son passed away. It was bloody sad. Mum found it difficult walking me in the pram thereafter.

Andy Lee reveals he very nearly died as a child. Picture: Supplied

‘I wasn’t allowed to play footy’

HM: Bloody hell. Horrible. To school. Captain of school sports team, and school music team – unusual combo?

AL: Agreed — in the Venn diagram they don’t normally connect! You can’t be captain of music and captain of sport, they’re normally at opposite ends of the school.

HM: Footy and guitar?

AL: Neither. I never played football. I wasn’t allowed to. Dad had a bad injury playing that rearranged his hand, and his wrist, and he still has issues with it. After that Mum said, my kids aren’t playing footy. My brother and I both played hockey, which is meant for short, fast people ..

HM: Not tall and lanky.

AL: I still play ocky! My first ever football game was at the EJ Whitten Legends match, which was a baptism by fire. I took a mark on Paul Barnard, the Essendon champ, but I kneed him in the back. He turned around to me, and I’ll use substitute words – he said, “You flamin’ mongrel. Next time you get the ball, you are flamin’ in for it”. I thought, “Gee, this is a bit serious!” Sure enough, next time I got the ball, I experienced what a real tackle was like.

HM: From a music standpoint?

AL: Trumpet.

HM: Cam, your brother, is a really good musician, isn’t he?

AL: He is. We still play in a band together, I play trumpet, and he’s more the front man. When it came to gigs, I know everyone says the base player is the one who gets the least attention, but I’ve found the trumpet sits below that, for sure. At school it was good though as Captain of Sport and Music, because if my jock mates were about to bully the lead violinist, I’d have the violinist’s back!

‘I once cancelled $80 million worth of Good Guys cheques’

HM: From school to uni. You studied accountancy, and thought you were going to be an accountant. Did you realise you weren’t going to be a good accountant doing work experience at The Good Guys?

AL: Yes. I enrolled in accountancy at Melbourne University, and went and did the accounts for The Good Guys over my summer break. I cancelled millions of dollars of cheques, instead of presenting them, over a two-day period of work experience. I think it was close to $80 million worth of cheques that I cancelled.

HM: (laughs) How do you rectify that?

AL:Everyone in that whole company had to re-do their work! They’re all coming in at 6 o’clock to try and catch up the next day, and I said to the guy that employed me, “I’ll come in and help as well”. He said, “No, no”. I resigned from work experience straight away and changed all my subjects to marketing where you can get away with bluffing!

HM: I love the fact that you resigned from you work experience. University, you change to marketing, and have a view of doing what with your life?

AL: At that point, I just wanted to be a musician!

HM: Well then accountancy was such a natural road to go down, because when you think of Elvis, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen – you think of debits and credits.

AL: (laughs) Exactly. Justin Bieber was an accountant before he hit the big time.

HM: Squaring away the ledgers just as he really stepped into his prime.

AL: (laughs) My brother and I were playing a lot of great gigs, we didn’t have a song good enough to get radio play but were listenable enough and had enough energy to be quite good live. We played a lot of great shows, a lot of festivals, and it came to the point where I had to make a decision. Is this going to be life? Then I met Hamish shortly after that, and life took a bit of a different turn.

‘Then I met Hamish Blake . . . and life took a different turn’. Picture: Supplied

‘How I met Hamish Blake‘

HM: A guy called Pete introduced you. Does he ever get attributed with a last name, any form of recognition, or a percentage or your profits?

AL: He should! Pete Nolan is his name. After a tutorial one day he said to me, “You should meet my mate Hamish”. I said I’d meet him. “He’s not here yet, he’s living in Sydney, but he comes down next year”. I’m glad he did, because in the next year, March, in the Commerce Courtyard of Melbourne University, Pete came up and said, “This is the guy I was telling you about. It’s Hamish”. I remember vividly Hamish said to me, “I’ve heard a lot about you”. I said, “Really?”. “Yep, this is just as weird for me”. We went across the road, had a beer, and cut Pete out of the friendship.

HM:You meet Hame, you’re still doing marketing. What’s Hamish studying?

AL: When you see him and the things he’s done on our shows, you wouldn’t think he’s intelligent, but he is extremely book smart, street wise, but common sense evades him. He was doing Commerce/Science, but advanced mathematics, advanced physics, the kind of stuff you see in Good Will Hunting! I sat in one of his lectures one day and observed the equations on the board as Hamish was taking it all in — I had no idea what they were going on about. It became very evident that if I didn’t go to class, I could still pass my marketing subjects. If Hamish didn’t go to class, it was going to be a slippery slope to failure. It turned out that way with him!

HM: At what point do you two sit in front of a microphone together?

AL: Skipping class and catching up for lunch, we just kept making each other laugh. We started writing down sketches, and ideas, with no real intention or knowledge of how we’d ever put them to air or get them out there. There was no YouTube or Instagram or iPhones — had to see if your mate’s Dad owned a camera!

Hamish Blake and Andy Lee. Picture: News Corp

Becoming a radio star

HM: So how did you get on air?

AL: We accumulated this stuff, and I said to Hame, “I reckon we should go on the radio”. I worked at a pub in St Kilda, and one of the guys in there said, “You should try radio”. We were at SYN FM originally, which is down at RMIT. We used to skip Melbourne Uni and pretend we were enrolled there so we could get on the airwaves on their student youth network. It was me, Hamish, a friend of ours, Ryan Shelton, and Whippa – who would occasionally be on the show.

HM: You got a call from Channel 7, but didn’t think it was real?

AL: We’d been doing a TV show on RMITV’s community set channel — Channel 31. It was after five half-hour episodes of that when we got a call from Channel 7. Guy Rundle called and said, “We’ve seen your channel 31 show, we’d like to see if you want to come and audition for a Channel 7 show”. I was particularly rude to Guy, because I thought it was Whippa pranking me. I said, “You couldn’t afford us”. He said, “No, I think we could …” I said, “I know you’re pranking me Whippa, what are we doing this weekend?” He said, “This is not a prank. I’ll call you back another time”. I called Whippa, and asked him what he was doing? He said, “No, that wasn’t me”. I thought I’d ruined it for Hamish and I!

HM: Did he call back?

AL: Guy called back and said, “Is this a better time?” I don’t know why everyone turns British when they’re trying to be nice, but all of a sudden I was saying, “Yes sir. Absolutely. A thousand apologies for the earlier conversation”. We were thrust into our own TV show really quickly — it felt like a Wayne’s World experience. That gave us enough confidence to think, there might be something here. We went on with the radio at the same time.

HM: Did you prefer radio over TV? Or was it whatever came up first was what you two were going to pursue?

Radio or TV?

AL: I don’t think we knew either of them yet. We were a little bit naïve. We realised that as we went, radio for our skill sets becomes easier and more natural, but also, as you know Hame, there’s no one who can meddle with you on the radio. It’s a direct line between you, and a microphone, and your audience. That’s very different to how much work goes into TV.

HM: Were you a panel operator at Fox in 01’?

AL: Yep.

HM: How do you end up there?

AL: We put in our demo at Fox FM, and they didn’t want us. Then we put our demo in at Nova, and they also didn’t want us. Dan Bradley who was at Nova at the time says he’s never lived that down. I heard him on a podcast say, “Passing up on Hamish and Andy is one of my big misses”. At the time, we were very green though. We really had something and were really loving it, and we needed to get in somewhere. Hamish was writing for Matt Tilley and Tracy Bartram in the mornings, and if I could panel for Kyle and Jackie O, at least we could use the facilities and learn a bit more about it. Hame got me the job from the panel op side of things, and it wasn’t long before I realised how bad I was as a panel operator.

HM: Experience wise, had you had any?

AL: No. None. I’ve pressed buttons on a keyboard before, it can’t be that dissimilar! Hamish and I were doing demos on a community radio show. That was the extent of the experience. But Craig Bruce, who became a good pal, has an amazing programming mind. He said, “I think there’s something in you two, but we’ve got to get Andy from the other side of that desk not worrying about what song is coming up. Thankfully, Hamish and I ended up on the same side of the desk, and we had a panel operator on the other side. That’s when life became really fun.

HM: And where was that?

AL: That was Fox FM in ’03’. In November of ’03 we got our first show — the Almost Tuesday Show, because it was on Monday nights — 10 til midnight! So, we were on the radio, they’d given us a show, with no pay, and then Fox FM and Austereo found out that we had this Hamish & Andy show coming up on Channel 7. That’s when they panicked. They had this strange meeting where they brought us in, and they said, “Have you got a TV show coming up on Channel 7?” We said, “Oh yeah, we should have told you about that”. They said, “We need to talk to you about your contract here. We’d love you to sign here, and we will backpay you for every show you’ve done so far”. We went into that meeting thinking we were getting in trouble. Hamish was allowed to put in expenses for his travel to and from work for the breakfast show, and I’d filled up my car on the same fuel pump as Hamish, we thought they were otno us!.

HM: (laughs) That is actually genius. That beats following a car under the boom gates for free parking.

AL: Hamish and I have done that as well, unfortunately …

Hamish and Andy have a successful podcast.

HM: You get a contract. Is that when Hamish & Andy is formed officially?

AL: Yep. Then they moved us to Saturday mornings, and people were awake and could call in.

HM: And mostly sober!

AL: Again, credit to Austereo here, but they sat us in the Saturday slot for two years, and we filled in every ratings break on drive or breakfast, depending where we were. They took their time, the equivalent of letting a player play enough games in the VFL before giving them a run. When we hit a main slot, and a full time slot, we did feel really prepared.

HM: When did it go from being, “This is a bit of fun” and mucking about, to “This is pretty serious now. We have a big slot. Millions listening. We are being paid serious money, and we have to continue to be funny.

AL: Into the second year of drive. We were still naïve — we just thought it was normal.

HM: You were breaking all the records at that point?

Pop music helped make me

AL: We knew a lot of people were listening, but it didn’t feel like that. It just felt like this is what the show should be. We weren’t fussed about the money or the job, we were just having an absolute ball. Ratings would go down at the start of every year, because Triple J was such a force over summer, particularly with the Hottest 100. We didn’t follow ratings too much, but suddenly we lost five points, and the station was really worried. There were meetings, finances – that’s when I realised it was a big machine. There’s a lot of people relying on us. I felt that pressure for a moment in time, before realising that it doesn’t help your job at all.

HM: Why did it work so well?

AL: There were a number of factors that allowed us to have a huge audience in such a short amount of time. One was pop music became a thing. The years before us, 2003 and ’04, it was all about rock music. Powderfinger was huge, Silverchair, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes – all these amazing bands. In our first year of drive, we had Rihanna on for her first single, Katy Perry on for her first single, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift a year later. They’ve gone on to be the most iconic music stars of this decade, and there was a swell towards pop music at the time that we’d started. It was a perfect storm.

HM: What was the peak ratings number?

AL: I don’t know. In the 20’s.

HM: Which for FM is unbelievable. Right now, I don’t think there’s anyone in double digits.

AL: The crazy thing was when we started, in the contract you had to be number one or two FM to get a bonus. I thought, perhaps we could do that. We were a 6 in Melbourne, and a bit lower in some areas around the country. Our ratings went up, but the other FM stations didn’t budge. They realised that we were taking listeners off Derryn Hinch. He was on a 19 share, something around there, and as we climbed, he came down. We always talked about ratings in FM versus total, because AM had a lot of listeners. I lived in the same building as Derryn Hinch, and I remember one day we beat him. We were on a 16; he was a 14. We were in the lift together, and he said, “Well done”. I said, “Thanks, don’t worry. History will right itself. Order will be restored soon enough, I’m sure”. We went down on the next one, and Hinchy beat us. I was walking back into the building, and he came out of the elevator with a nice bottle of wine, and this scarf on. He was heading across the road to celebrate. He said, “Order has been restored”. That was the last time he ever got the better of us! For the next three years’ worth of elevator rides, we didn’t talk too much.

Designing new flavour Smiths chips

HM: What’s the most odd or surprising successful on-air concept? Designing a new flavoured chip, and seeing them then on the shelves?

AL: Incredible. Fastest selling chip Smiths have ever had! They weren’t necessarily our ideas that worked. We found that our listeners are so funny and so intelligent that they contribute to the ideas. If we got the playground right, they would jump on and just make it funnier, and better. That’s what we loved about the show. Constantly getting surprised by what the listeners came up with, and how they could make the show funnier.

HM: Frank Stallone – Sylvesters brother?

AL: We brought out Frank Stallone from the US, he was Sylvester Stallone’s brother. He’d had one popular song, but the concert we built up sold out in six minutes! We were trying to explain to Frank, people enjoy the ‘idea’ of you being big. We asked people to come out to the airport, to welcome him, and bring babies he could kiss, as a joke. When he arrived, people are there with banners! We had a parade for Frank, and we thought the joke was going to be that no one would come. There were thousands of people there! This was now funnier, because he’s almost living in a Truman Show type world. We have thousands of people that want to be a part of this joke, and it was just so funny to treat this person like he was a Beatle.

HM: We’ll settle on chips and frank. Why did it end?

AL: We have always been itchy to do other stuff. Hame and I have talked about four and five-year cycles. Let’s just change things up, even if things are going really well, for creative purposes. I never wanted to be one of those people that got stuck doing the same job, even if the job was fantastic. I can understand when you’re older with a family and kids, that surety is much better. We’d always said we’d do a TV show at some point, but because the radio show was going so well, we kept delaying that. We’d done five years of drive, and Hame and I thought, this is the time to take a leap and step away. The radio station couldn’t believe it, our manager couldn’t believe it. Creatively, we wanted to test ourselves again, and that’s when Gap Year started!

Workaholic - it sounds like a dirty word’

HM: Hugely brave when everything is going so well to go completely against the grain and all the thoughts of those around you. I guess, only you know what you want to do.

AL: We’ve got these fundamental measures of success which is money, or holding a high position. It annoys me that they are the registered measurements for success. I have a mate of mine who is a bookkeeper, who can’t wait to clock off at five and hang with his kids, play golf, and have beers on the weekend with his mates. He is so pleased and happy with life. I think he is the most successful of my friends!

HM: You’re not far off being a workaholic. Is that fair?

AL: I get a lot of self-worth out of work — as long as it’s good work. When I say good, I mean fun to do, with good people. Hamish has thankfully taught me that there are other parts to this. He has a great work life balance, and he has often encouraged me to take breaks that I’ve been really grateful for. My mind gets busy, I like fitting in as much as possible. It sounds like a bit of a dirty word; a workaholic.

HM: It’s almost a slap that you haven’t got the balance right, but the important part here is that you get great enjoyment and self-worth from it. If that’s what’s making you happy and giving you validation, it’s a good way to spend your time.

AL: Exactly. It’s not about the work that I’m doing, or even keeping busy, it’s not about money. Nearly all the good decisions we have made involved us making less money at the time. If we wanted to make the most money, we’d stick to doing radio, and stick to trying to keep the success going.

Rebecca Harding and Andy Lee. Picture : Ian Currie

‘Family and golf make the perfect day’

HM: What does the perfect day look like for you?

AL: It would involve golf.

HM: What are you off?

AL: Seven. It would involve dinner with my girlfriend, Bec. I love seeing family as well. The funny thing with my work is as soon as we start a project, I become obsessed. I will try and make it as good as it can possibly be, until it’s delivered. Like a footy season, as soon as a project starts, I’m all in.

HM: You mention Bec. How often have you left an email address on a napkin for someone?

AL: It’s the only time, I can assure you! If anyone wants to refute this, and produce the evidence, they can. She was a waitress then, but not a very good one. I was at the café by myself, typing up some stuff for the Arias that were coming up that Hamish and I were hosting. At the table next to me, I could hear, “Do you think she’s remembered? I don’t think she’s put it in. Maybe they’re just busy”. I said to them, “I don’t think she’s put it in, guys. You better get her across”. They called her across, and Bec went, “Let me check with the kitchen for you”. She went back to the kitchen, came back; “Yeah, what was it again?” She said to me, “I was the worst waitress, because I was so interested in everyone’s stories”. She was, and she still is. You will never see a more enthusiastic and interested person. She is just the perfect audience for anyone with any story.

HM: There’s nothing more attractive than someone that’s interested.

AL: Absolutely. She’s definitely ground me in that regard. She clicks me into gear and pulls me back into line when I’m talking about myself too much. To give you an idea of her empathy, she went out to buy a plant for our house, and she came back with this plant that was nearly dead. I said, “Were they out of stock?” She says, “No”. “Well, why’d you get this?” She said, “No one would have bought it”. It’s nearly dead! She nursed it back to life.

‘It took me 40 minutes to write my first book’

HM: A question from my eight-year-old, seven-year-old, and four-year-old son. When are you writing your next DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK?

AL: (laughs) I’m so sorry. I have six now! They’re in 35 languages. It’s been so funny seeing how different people pick up on them, particularly around the world. Interaction is what I love about them. I’ve said to parents before, I think it’s a bit of a psych test for your kids. If they’re too keen to break the rules, just keep an eye on them when they hit their teens. Two nights ago, I was in bed, and Bec had gone to sleep. I was pondering a few things, and an idea for a book came to me. I had to wake up Bec, and I said, “I’ve got two ideas for the next book”. She said, “What time is it?” I plan to sit down next week at nut that out. Hopefully another one out mid to late this year.

HM: We have DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK, DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK AGAIN, and DEFINITELY DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK. I don’t think we have four, five or six. I’m going to the book shop on the way home. They are obsessed. Such a simple concept, but I’m slightly worried about my seven-year-old given her appetite to continue to do exactly what we are being told not to.

AL: I had this video sent through to me by a principle in Mexico, reading the book to about 400 students in Spanish. I don’t understand what she’s saying in Spanish, but all I hear is her stop, and then 400 kids telling, “Si, si, si, si, si, si, si … No, no no no no no!”. I was really chuffed with it. I fell into this line of writing, and people analyse things so deeply, far more than you were ever thinking. It’s published by Scholastic in the US, and I was in one of the meetings in New York. The guy said, “It’s really great, because at the moment we’ve got this problem with kids where they don’t want to take risks. Was that the driver for you?” I said, “Yeah, absolutely!”. It’s funny how people can analyse things far more than you ever intended, but I’m glad that may be a perceived by product.

HM: How long does it take you to write a book like that?

AL: The first one was forty minutes on a plane, because it was meant to be a present for my nephew. It was never meant to be published.

‘The most fun I ever had’

HM: If I could take you back to the one time in the last 20 years where you think, that’s the greatest moment, the most fun, the most special, for whatever reason, where would you be and who would you be with?

AL: I’d be with Hame. Sorry to say that to everyone else …

HM: Particularly Michael Jamieson …

AL: (laughs) As much fun as I’ve had with my family and with Bec around the world, I just don’t laugh with anyone as much as I laugh with Hamish. When it comes to life, I just think as much laughter as possible is the best medicine. Whereabouts would we be? Hame and I took a trip straight after we decided to take that leap of faith and leave radio in 2010. We took matching suits, wore them on the plane, and we took three shirts and three pairs of boxer shorts. We went to Vegas, in the same suits for three days. It wasn’t the wild hangover type Vegas trip that you’d think …

HM: You didn’t steal Mike Tyson’s tiger?

AL: No. We were tame compared to a lot of other wild trips over there, but that excitement, and the drive there from LA, was just so much fun. We’d finished a big chapter of our lives, and I certainly loved being able to share those moments with Hame, and finally have a trip together where we weren’t being followed by cameras.

HM: You’ve been extraordinarily amusing and made a lot of people around the world laugh. From my kids, through to me personally. It’s been fun having a chat, and well done on everything.

AL: Cheers Bud. Really appreciate it.

Andy can be seen on The Cube Australia on 10.