Animals singer Eric Burdon on touring Australia and rock ’n’ roll

The Animals singer Eric Burdon gets a little confused about when exactly he came to Australia for the first time.

Eric Burdon, frontman of British band the Animals, in Sydney. ‘The only thing I have left is my voice’. Picture: James Croucher

A lifetime of rock ’n’ roll has taken its toll on Eric Burdon, but luckily for him and his fans it hasn’t ­affected his distinctive voice.

The Animals singer, who turned 75 last week, says his voice is the one thing that has remained intact after a career spanning six decades, not all of it spent wisely.

“I’m a physical wreck,” he says in Sydney. “The macho things to do when I started were to stay up all night, drink lots of coffee, take speed pills just to get through it. I’m finding out that the real macho thing to do is to eat properly and take care of yourself.”

The veteran singer is on tour in Australia with a new incarnation of the Animals, whose hits in the 1960s ­included Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, It’s My Life and the classic The House of the Rising Sun.

At the peak of the band’s fame, the Animals were part of the British pop and rock invasion overseas that included the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Burdon, from Newcastle in England’s northeast, gets a little confused about when exactly he came to Australia for the first time, other than to acknowledge that it was at the height of the ­Animals’ international success.

“I get mixed up between the first couple of times from those early days. All I know is that it’s a different world here now.”

He describes The House of the Rising Sun, an old blues tune that became the Animals’ signature song, as “the song that won’t die”.

It was recorded in an afternoon during a British tour in 1964 with Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.

The singer, who has ­enjoyed a solo career spanning several decades as well as numerous spells with ­different line-ups of the ­Animals, sometimes refer­red to as the New Animals, is working on a second volume of his auto­biography.

He published the first volume, I Used to Be an ­Animal But I’m Alright Now, in 1986. “The road always gets in the way,” he said, “but I’m interested in writing about the people I have met in the music business … rather than about the music business.”

Burdon said the latest Animals tour features many of the band’s hits as well as “some songs I’ve ­always wanted to sing and never got the chance to”.

It continues in Melbourne tonight then Penrith in Sydney, Caloundra and the Gold Coast in Queensland. “Here I am in my mid-70s and I’m still doing it and still enjoying it. The only thing I have left is my voice. It’s a gift and I have to keep using it.”