Lonnie Lee - Australian Rock and Roll Pioneer

On this episode Jack is joined by Lonnie Lee, Australian rock and roll pioneer.

Lonnie grew up in a time before rock and roll, when artists like Johnny Ray and Nat King Cole ruled the airwaves. But everything changed in 1955 when he first heard Bill Haley and from that point onward rock and roll was his passion. In 1957, Lonnie entered a competition setting out to find “Australia’s Elvis” and he won. From there, his career began to take off, getting gigs around Sydney and doing other various competitions. After taking a year out of music in 1958 due to a car accident, Lonnie made his musical comeback in 1959.

Lonnie came to record through promoter Lee Gordon, who signed Lonnie to the Leedon label. During his first session, he didn’t have a B-side for his debut single, so in the studio he and Johnny O’Keefe penned Ain’t It So in about 20 minutes. It would become Lonnie’s first hit, making it into the top ten on the Sydney charts in late 1959. Through the early '60s, Lonnie would have a string of other hits including Starlight Starbright and I Found a New Love.

More recently, Lonnie has just released his first book in a planned set of four on his life — the first book in the series Almost a Star — and goes into his early life before his success in rock and roll.

Jack phoned Lonnie to talk about his early musical memories, the impact Johnny Ray had on him, life pre-rock and roll, hearing Bill Haley and Elvis for the first time, his memories of winning a competition in 1957 that was looking for Australia’s Elvis, his work throughout 1957, the car accident he had in late 1957, his time as a jackaroo in 1958, what it was like being isolated from rock and roll during most of 1958, his comeback to music in 1959, how he came to be signed to the Leedon label, how Ain’t It So came to be, the success he had throughout the late '50s and early '60s, how he came to be the first Aussie artist to have a full-colour album cover, his 2019 album Back to Base X, and his new book Almost a Star.

"So he (a friend of Lonnie's) went and bought this record and of course it was 'Rock Around the Clock' and it was just amazing — hearing this song was just... like a blind person seeing for the first time." – Lonnie Lee on this episode of Vinyl Vibe, talking about hearing rock and roll for the first time.

Episode Hosted and Produced by Jack Hodgins. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.