I’ve sent Bob Dylan love letters for years, and I just got a reply!

Michael Chugg, 77, is Australia’s most experienced music promoter. I spoke to him on Thursday.

Fitz: Michael, great to chat again . . .

MC: All good. It’s been chaos, as we’ve got three new albums coming out this week.

Elton John and Michael Chugg celebrating their 60th birthdays in 2007 at Acer Arena (now Qudos Bank Arena) at Sydney Olympic Park.

Fitz: Of course you do. Who doesn’t? But you’ve been doing this for over 60 years. Tell me about how you got into it.

MC: Well, I was 16 years old, at home in Launceston, and I put on a show to raise money for the local amateur cycling club. We ran a dance with Launceston’s top band called The Dominoes. My father was a fireman, and he and his mates were security, and at five shillings a head, we raised 80 pounds. I loved it, loved organising things. I went on to manage the support act that night, The Chevrons.

Fitz: A star is born!

MC: Not yet. I also wanted to be a sports commentator, and actually got a gig as a young fellow at a radio station, 7EX. One night I was calling the greyhound race, had put my money on the very one that came a cropper and, live to air, I said: “Well, I’ll be f---ed, it’s fallen over.” Two hours later, out on the footpath with my belongings, the decision as to whether to pursue radio or promoting was made for me ...

Fitz: You must have moved fast, because as a uni student in the early 80s I remember you being up on stage running huge music festivals at Narara and Tanelorn. I recall rain and mud! You must have had it all on the line, every time?

MC: Yup. We had our balls on the line every festival because we weren’t getting paid unless it worked. That’s the way it is, and over the years I’ve done heaps of festivals and one-day outdoor events, like Guns and Roses in Eastern Creek.

The Angels perform at the Narara Music Festival on January 30, 1983.Credit: Peter Solness

Fitz: The news lately is that big music festivals, like Splendour in the Grass, Bluesfest and so forth, are dead: too much money for insurance, for security, for tickets. It’s not working anymore. Are they dead?

MC: [Dismissively.] No. It’s just the way of festivals. They run in cycles. I remember buying into an Australian festival back in the 90s called Homebake, which ran at the Domain, and the year I bought into it, the cycle came to an end. Right now, there’s a lot of successful festivals out there, and there’s a lot of new little ones that are attempting to build their way. It has been difficult since COVID to make it all add up, but there are lots of people doing good things and having a go.

Fitz: Surely one of the most fascinating things you’ve done is to bring the big headline acts here. I remember an extraordinary story you told me 20 years ago, in the grounds of Neutral Bay Public School, about Bob Dylan ...

MC: I have toured Bob many times, and he’s amazing. I mean, the first tour I ever did with Bob, in the mid-80s, we went all over the country and he never said a word. And then at Brisbane Airport, he was flying off to Japan and his security guy came out and said, “Mr Dylan wants to see you.” And I walked into the customs area and he was standing there with his sunglasses and his hat. And he said, “Chuggy, this is one of the best tours I’ve ever done. I’ll see you again.” And I’ve toured him ever since, many, many times. And sometimes he wouldn’t talk to me, and other tours, he’d sit with me for an hour and chat. He was incredible, still is, and I am hoping that we might get him here again, soon.

“Chuggy,” Bob Dylan said, “this is one of the best tours I’ve ever done.” Credit: Peter Braig

Fitz: That must be extraordinary. You’re sitting there with the seer of our generation – the Messiah! – shooting the breeze. Do you have moments of, “This is mind-blowing, people would kill to be in this position!”

MC: Yes. It’s quite incredible. I mean, I learned very early that it was always better to be seen but not heard. So, if the artists wanted to have a chat, I was there for a chat. But I never pursued them, or presumed to initiate those sorts of situations. And I think that is why I have incredible loyalty from the artists I work with.

Fitz: And the most extraordinary thing Dylan ever said to you?

MC: He looked me right in the eye, leaned in, and said, “What do you think of investing in New Zealand real estate?” I never saw it coming! Another time, I had been ill with heart problems in LA and I went out to a county fair in the middle of California. It took hours to get there, and when we arrived, I was walking across this paddock to get to the stage, when Bob Dylan ran up and cuddled me! I was flabbergasted.

Fitz: What about Billy Joel? Good man, bad man, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief? And did he start the fire?

MC: Great man. And a great friend. I remember him giving me a tour of Little Italy in New York, showing me where The Godfather had been shot, where this had happened, where that had happened, and everywhere we went, he was one of the locals, one of the guys. He was an incredible character and I was with him. Just an amazing guy. I mean, he loves what he does, and I was with him once at Madison Square Garden, getting him to come to play at the MCG for Frontier Touring. He said, “Do you think we’ll sell it out?” And I said, “Of course you will. You’re Billy Joel.” And they did. But he remains an incredibly humble guy.

Fitz: Other standouts?

MC: Elton John, of course. I have toured him, too, many times, and just before COVID broke we did a total of 42 Farewell Yellow Brick Road shows in Australia and New Zealand. We brought him back in January 2023 to do eight more. Standing off-stage in Bathurst and Coffs Harbour and watching people having the time of their lives – with one of the biggest superstars in the world in their little towns – was an amazing thing. He’s such a performer, and I remember in 2009 when he played for three hours in the pouring rain at the Canberra Botanical Gardens, and he never wavered. These people are professionals. They entertain and they give people memories they will never forget.

Fitz: But there must have been a few of them, over the years, where you’ve thought, “You’re an absolute [prat] of a person and I never want to tour you again.”

MC: Not really, no ... maybe John Mellencamp ... small man’s persona.

Fitz: What about ones who are difficult, and in their dressing rooms only want pink Smarties, but every 20th one has to be black?

MC: Oh, there’s legends about that. One year Van Halen wanted different coloured Smarties and so forth, but that was more back in the 70s and 80s, when there were a lot of things going on. But these days people are all very healthy and fit and travel with masseurs and all sorts of people to keep them happy and healthy.

Fitz: I don’t ask out of prurient interest, much, but who attracted the most groupies trying to get to them?

MC: The first tour Jon Bon Jovi did. There must have been 3000 teenagers outside the hotel in Melbourne for three days.

Fitz: All right. So what’s your verdict on the current crop of music superstars? What do you think of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and so forth?

MC: Taylor Swift is astounding. Any person who can play four nights in a row, three hours a night and perform at their level with the quality that she does is incredible. She’s the biggest thing the world has ever seen, bigger than the Beatles, bigger than everybody. And the great thing is, on her last tour, of the 700,000 people she played to, at least 40 per cent of them – young and old – had never been to a concert in their lives. That is huge for our industry – new fans coming through.

Fitz: Why do you think, globally, women – Swift, Beyonce, Rihanna, and so forth – are dominating the music industry?

MC: They’re huge, all right. But the explosion is in country music, which is the biggest genre of music right now. The youngest ticket-buying generation of people now are known as “Zoomers” and a recent survey of the Zoomers in Australia saw 69 per cent of them nominate country music as their favourite. It’s very exciting for us and I’m lucky enough to manage and record artists. Watch Casey Barnes, who’s starting to make it big in America. Later this month he is the only Australian playing at Stagecoach in California, the biggest country music show in America. Amy Shepherd from Brisbane is also breaking out, and then there’s this 17-year-old from Tamworth called Lane Pittman. They’re all having hits. It’s a very vibrant time for country music, and very exciting. Our CMC Rocks festival outside of Ipswich is in its 18th year and has introduced massive country acts to Australia and showcased unknown Americans like Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen and this year Lainey Wilson. A young Taylor Swift played the first one 20 years ago in the Snowy Mountains.

Fitz: I love both kinds of music, country and western, but am amazed our mob can penetrate the American market in that genre.

MC: They’re all great, but I would particularly say Lane Pittman is going to be a huge star, globally. I get incredible pride out of seeing Australian acts go international and one of the great things is that the current government has legislated monies towards Australian music here and internationally to grow them further.

Fitz: I see you’re one of nine people appointed last year to the new Music Australia Council, which has been given $69 million over four years, and your mission is to grow and support the music sector. What has this council done since it’s formed?

MC: We’ve very quickly employed great people to run it, setting it up so that if, for example, a promising artist gets a chance to play Glastonbury but is short of money, we can do it quickly and get him or her over there. We’re setting up a system where we can advance Australian music, both locally and internationally.

Fitz: There’s a Gary Larson cartoon that I love, which shows “Giorgio Armani at home”, depicting the great fashionista at last relaxing after the day’s work, slumped in a chair in his singlet, barefoot and drinking beer while spraying discarded chicken wings about. When you’re away from your work, who do you listen to?

MC: I’m not really away from my work. I am mostly listening to new acts.

Fitz: OK, but when I come to your funeral in 35 years’ time, what’s the song you want me to tell the guy to play as we load your coffin in the hearse?

MC: (Laughing.) Fooled Around and Fell in Love by Elvin Bishop; Angels by Robbie Williams and ... of course, Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Fitz: OK. I want to put one idea in your head, and you’ll make a fortune, Michael, if you’ll just listen to me! Get Bob Dylan on the blower and say, “Bobby, come to Australia. No backing band, no huge sound system. Just you, your guitar and a harmonica. No big costs. Just pure Dylan, and the old songs!”

MC: Won’t happen. Trust me. He’d think I was crazy, and wouldn’t speak to me for a year.

Fitz: [Crestfallen] Oh. Well, can you tell him I love him?

MC: I already did once – one night when he and I were drinking with Jack Thompson, sitting on camp chairs back-stage at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre – because you always ask me that. I told him all about you, and how you were a huge supporter, and how you said to say, “Tell Bobby, I love him.”

Fitz: You did!? And what did he say!?

MC: He just grunted.

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz