June 4, 2023 • 35 mins
Andy Lee shares how he uses golf ball markers to make new friends, the unconditional and life-changing love of dogs and his shrine to Hamish.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Our lives are made up of stories, and sometimes the
stories we tell ourselves about ourselves aren't always true. The
stuff we choose to hold on to, the things we
decide to cherish, can reveal more about ourselves than we realize.
I'm Christian O'Connell and this is stuff of legends. I've
asked some of the one's most interesting people to tell
me the story. Are three of their most treasured objects
(00:24):
and items, and tell us the stories behind them. I
want to add in a content warning here we do
start to talk about suicide and self harm. Now, if
that is too much for you today, I completely understand
that maybe today's show isn't for you today. One half
of Australia's most beloved duo is here. He's one of
the most successful radio and podcast presenters in Australia and
(00:47):
the world. He is a children's book author and hosts
of a big TV show, The one hundred on Channel nine.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm Andy Lee, the better half of Hamish and Andy,
although that's probably disputed by my parents as well. I'd imagine.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Now, Andy, was it interesting going through and picking your
three items to tell me about?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
This is? I nearly called you yesterday because I don't
keep things, so like.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
You know, I've been around your place. It's like Robert
Dennaire in the movie Heat. It's like you're ready for
the police at any moment you can go.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So I thought, oh, stuff a Legends coming up, this
would be this is great. I like the pod, So
what am I going to present my things? And then
I was like, I don't have things in my house.
So I did my own walking tour of my house
to see this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Is what you want to do? House into a museum's
this piece, this artact exactly to go what is it
for me?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And it occurred to me that I'm a terrible guest
for this show, because are you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I'm not so right. So you're not sentiment on nostalgia.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, I do love memories mainly through story. I like
catching up with someone for a beer and going, hey,
remember the time we did this. I never took photos
growing up. Hamish was in charge of the camera when
we first started hanging out, so he has all the photos.
And then when camera phones came in, I started.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
To a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So it was tough. This was tough.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It was a tough asung. So you've got like very
little stuff to say childhood or nothing, your career, what
about your beloved footy teen Carlton.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, I've got near not much.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I was about to say, I do know why. I'm
familiar with the history. There's not a lot of good
time memories that are there the mementos. All right, Andy Lee,
how did you go on the walking tour of your home?
What's your first item?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah? So the first thing, as I was walking around
my house, my dog was just following me and I
looked at an object one Henry the dog. Now I'm
not sure whether that.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, I would say that Russell Brand mentioned his passed away.
So we have had a dead cat, We've got a
very alive dog. Yes, so yeah, tell us about your dog.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And then when again, when you look at something and
you're forced to understand how sentimental it is to you
to give people perspective of where I've come from from dog.
I never wanted any pets. We never grew up with
any pets whatsoever. No, because my parents thought they grew
up on farms. Dogs were either to herd cattle. There
(03:28):
was no such thing as a dog inside, you know,
certainly not hand feeding it or letting it sleep between
Beck and I would just be a non So I've
always been appalled by people with pets. I thought it
was a waste of Seriously, I thought it was a
waste of time. Why would you pick up after them?
Why would you give yourself extra responsibility?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
All these things.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
And as Beck and I progressed their relationship, and she
just constantly asked me for a dog. My first girlfriend Ella,
she wanted me to get a dog as well, and
I was like, no, they're a waste of time, space,
all that kind of thing. And so she got me
a hermit crab to try and start me that.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Starter thing for anyone. Hermit crabs give you nothing, no
unconditional love, which is what pets.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Give us exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Hermit crabs by their name hermits, They actually don't want
to hang out, and they're.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Not sophistic enough, sophisticate enough to text you or anything.
So and if you walk into the room, they tend
to see you and then just go back in.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So, very very rarely did I see Hermie the hermit crab,
and it didn't start me on my pet loving journey.
Although one day we walked into this study where it
was because I was still living at home with Mom
and dad, and I just looked. I just caught the
hermit crab without a shell on which never happens. It's
looked like a little tiny nude prawn and.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Like dark fade.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It was helmet, it was and it was panicked and
and and and and looking at me completely nude, as
if I had caught it as up to something. And
I was like, well, there's a bit peculiar. But I
just kind of left it and then it died, and
I was like, what what is it? What was it
doing before it happened? So I since looked it up
(05:18):
and the one of the one of the blogs said
that hermit crabs often crawl into a shell before they
release their other shell, and then so they've actually moved
kind of from house to house, as if they butt
the front door. They're two houses up together.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So they can open one door and kind of go
straight into another one because they don't want to be exposed.
They need to have a shield, yes, And sometimes as
they crawl in there, the shell gets stuck in the
bigger shell and they can't finish the move.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's just a sad story.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So it essentially got locked out of its house. This
is a pixel and was running around nude for a
while and then died from a harassment.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's a shame of it, poor old hermy, hermy.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, so the hermit crab didn't start in my journeys,
but I when I got Henrietta mainly got it for back.
There's there's absolutely no doubt.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
So did you surprise her? It was just a joint,
you surprised.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I surprised her. We've talked about getting a dog. I'd
succumbed to it and I said, okay, we might do this,
and then I surprised her, and I thought this will
be her dog. I'll enjoy watching her enjoy it. But
I I am.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So you've got dog? Yeah, all right, you love that dog.
I love this, she seems with you. I love this dogs.
I brought my dog from England to here when we
moved here. We've now got another dog. But they're not
on the bed.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
No. Well, what it's done to me for the for
the deeper emotional part of this, which you know may
sound sappy, is that I understand the how important it
is to care for other things yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I've got to say, right, you are slightly portraying some
sort of psychopathic man. People know he was lovable and
now they're hearing you some could I now understand human emotions?
Andy has joined us.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Well, my my sister called me the tin man when
we're growing up. That was my nickname for if I
only had a half And so it wasn't like I
don't love people, love things, because.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
You're fiercely loyalty Prince, you are.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I am and family. I just yeah, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yes, So what why did you pick that top of dog? First? All?
Tell us then what type of breeder is?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's a Welsh Terrier beautiful dogs, beautiful dogs, but can't
understand it when it speaks as the Welsh wonderful singing yes,
great in a choir, lots of consonants and not being
abound and the voice as well. I again, this is
going to go back to me being making sure that
(07:58):
this dog was going to be the right fit. I
went through dogs that don't park much, dogs are good
round kids because I love my nephews.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah that's sensible though.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Dogs that don't shed yep, and don't grow too big. Yeah,
dogs that can run fast and go for a jog,
because I would like I thought the idea of going
for take.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
A sports team recruiting a player looking for on the trade.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
A bit like that, so that all love I Love
Island or The Bachelor. So I'm just getting all these
tick bogs. So we picked the breed off that and
nailed it like this. This dog is.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Perse went to see a breeder. Yeah, okay, and you
see like a litter, don't you? And I don't think
there's any human being that can ever leave that not
having picked one of them out. W do you see
those little cute dogs.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Our situation was interesting because they're so hard to get
Welsh Terriers. We had to wait for eighteen months.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
What yeah, and obviously you are I don't mat me
saying there's a man of me. That doesn't mean anything,
does it? Got those breeders. There's no que jumping.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
No, there's no cue jumping. And so eighteen months I
got a text and that's why Beck and I were
going to do this together. But then we waited for
so long and Bet kept asking. I was like, I've
checked back in with him, and then I got this
email saying we've had a letter. You next in line,
and I thought you are.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Let's it's not IV for adopting a kid.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, no, sorry, they had a litter, yes, But an
email came through saying the litter has arrived and you
can come and get it. And that's when I thought, oh,
maybe I don't tell Beck about this. We've we waited
so long. This will be a great surprise. And she
was so happy.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
How did you surprise her?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I I was. I went and grabbed it, pretending I
was going to golf. So I've got a whole golf
gear on and a very elaborate set up, and I
drove out to lily Dale, which is about an hour
out of Melbourne, got the pup. I'd already got all
the supplies and stashed them at my parents' house, so
I didn't want to just come home and go, we've
got a dog and nothing to.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Andy man, what are we gonna do with all the
other stuff?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So I picked up all that stuff and then picked
up the dog. And we'd already decided Henrietta was going
to be the name. I don't know why, I can't remember.
So got home. Beck was upstairs and I snuck the
dog downstairs. And as for everything, you have to film
everything these days, so I set up a little camera
and I said, hey, can you come down and help
me put my golf clubs away? And she said, yesterday
(10:22):
I did. I'd be filming that and I've never ever
asked her to do. And for people who.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Play golf, he's had a bad rail.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It's not hard, they're not heavy. So she came down
and what was funny was she just returned from the supermarket.
So the one she loves this video because her instant
emotion of just is that she says, it's that Henrietta.
That's the first thing she says, and then just bursts
(10:51):
in tears. But on reflection, she regrets holding a chicken
from coals on the supermarket. That little snap plastic ba
plastic bag she's just because she slightly puts. People refer
to them as the bachelor's handbag because it's what you
always is to eat if you're single. So she puts
(11:15):
down the bachelor's handbag and picks up Henriette. It was
instant love. But also for me at that time, just
instant I loved beckmore, which is weird because you see
how much care and that that.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's so a different part of her comes out.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Comes out of immediately and then in the last eighteen
months of having Henrietta, it's just a different type of
relationship between me and the dog, me and back. But
also I just I see these you get home, no
matter what your day is, they're just there.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And people love pets. They are not pets. They give
you this unconditional love and you're right, no matter what
day you've had and how you are when you come
through the door, they're just like, hey, I love you.
And it's an incredible feeling it gives you. Yeah, it's
not every morning when I get a but four thirty
there's everyone's asleep in the house. The only person that's
away I'm happy to say, I'm not even happy to
be about, are my two dogs. And they give that
(12:11):
little stroke on the head. The joy you get from
just rubbing the head and sniffing the top of the
head is indescribable.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And they can sense how are you feeling, which is
just incredible. If Beck and I have gone through a
tough patch. We had a recent loss in our life
and I was so sad a friend of mine took
his own life and and Beck Beck was unsure what
to kind of do as well, you know, does this
a person one space in this type of moments. But
we spend a lot of time and I spent a
(12:37):
lot of time on the couch and looking at old
things and photos that we had together. And the dog
will just come and just lae its head on your lap.
The eye and the eyes are different. It's not like
I'm bored and want to be comfy. It's like I'm here.
I'm not going to say anything because I can't, and
if I did, it's well and I wouldn understand it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
But they have that, they have the presence, which is
what all of us needing a tough time, someone to
be present with us exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And I think we can take a bit from that,
like just sitting there and saying nothing is actually just
as important as anything.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And so because when someone's going through a tough time,
a lot of us are frightened about reaching out because
oh I don't know what to say, and she writes,
your job isn't to say anything, just let them feel
heard and just be there. It's being almost like a witness,
which is what a pet does, just a witness. Really
you're not saying anything, but why is this giving me something? Right?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And it's perfect for Beck because Beck, I don't really
When Beck's complaining about something, I tend to want to
find the solution.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's like the same argument I've been having from what
with my wife for twenty four years. I still haven't
heard that lesson. Yeah. Yeah, and with my daughters as well.
They just want to be like, Dad, what you're doing? Well,
I just trying to help you. No, you're trying to
fix it. Stop it. Why are you telling me? Just
leave a voice? Smell you talk about me?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I won't exactly, So now I just give her the dog. So, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Amazing how it's changed, not just your relationship, Bet, it's
changed you. I know it absolutely changed me, and you
can never know that actually experience it.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
No, and so funny that I'm a bit of a
workaholic and I like staying back, I like checking everything.
But Beck says, hey, I've gone out, the dog hasn't
had to walk. I'll leave the edit and go and
make sure the dog has a line, and you go,
How could I have thought that this was ever going
to be me? And I understand the same happens with children.
(14:29):
I don't have them, but like, he's.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So vulnerable, you love them so much. And there's also
that ever thought where your heart is sowhuch go. Oh
my word, if anything ever happened to you, I'd be devastating,
which is why when when pets do die, people are
so upset like you are. Actually, we had a dog
that the kids grew up with, and he passed away
about six years ago, right, And I remember I was
even the vet when he said, hey, he's passed away.
(14:53):
And I came in the vet as he was telling me,
because he'd been treating this dog for like ten years,
started to cry and then I star cry, it's so moving.
And then he goes, do you want to say goodbye
to him? And he pulled me into a little side room, right,
and the dog was lying on the floor, and he said,
do you want to keep some of his furst? So
I cut some of his woe. Both of us are
sobbing as I'm doing this, as I'm trimming his verve,
(15:14):
and I could still feel his energy there though. Yeah,
it was such a Yeah, patstick up a big place
in the heart, don't.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
They Well they do now previously though.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Not there for that tin man. Now there's a dog
in that tin soup. Okay, Andy, So your first item
is Henrietta your dog. What have you chosen as your
second item? On stuff of legends?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
You're going to have to there is a story to
this because it sounds it's golf related.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, I knew at some point we're going to have
something golf related.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I have a pouch of ball markers. And for non
golf golfers out there, essentially, when a ball lands on
the green near the hole, you're allowed to pick the
ball up and clean it. And so you put a
ball marker down and then then you put your ball
and it knows where your ball is. And also it's fair,
it's fair, and it allows other people say if they're
(16:13):
partting past your ball, they're not going to hit your ball.
So that's what you flew a flat ball mark down
and I've got a pouch of them and I love it.
And so how many is in the pouch? Well probably
about thirty five to forty that's a lot. Yeah, because
you don't need to mark the ball.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
No, not just but.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I played a game of golf. Golfs I find is incredible.
I'm not going I don't want people switching off here.
I promise you'll get your back, because I know people
find golf boring because often you get paired with people
that you've never met before and you have to beend
four and a half hoursand and that can be awful.
But often it's great because like minded people are there.
You understand the game, and it's the perfect It's unlike
(16:54):
sitting on a train next to someone who wants to
keep talking to you. You've got the perfect distraction while
it is OK, yeah, you can just hit the all
in a different direction to that person on purpose and
walk away from them.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And but you shanked it on purpose.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So I played a game with a fellow Brian Dormer
I think was his name, never met him before before.
We've teed off. He pulled out a pouch, so I've
stolen this idea, and he said, pick out a ball marker.
And every club in the world, no matter where you play,
has their own little ball markers, like little distinctive they.
So I picked one out and and he said what
(17:30):
did you get? And I said, oh, Saint George, I
ad a, sorry, it's England whatever. I can't remember this specifics,
but he had his own memory of that course, oh wow.
And it got ignited by the fact that I'd pulled
out and he had one hundred and fifty ball markers
in there, and he said, I always grab two whenever
every club I ever go to, I grabed two, one
(17:51):
for my own patch and one to give to my guests,
and every time I play with What a lovely.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Generous thing to do.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yes, So now I've got so I started doing the
same thing, and it's a great conversation starter, total ice
breaker where I'll say to someone, hey, pick one out
and they go Pebble Beach. I was like, oh yeah,
I went to Pebble Beach, just like below Sam Frown.
We took all my friends there. I played so terribly.
We spent all this money to go there, and I
(18:15):
had the worst four rounds of my life.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You were you are a very good golf I know.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I think the moment just and was at the moment and.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The place like it's one of the greatest courses in
the world, Zach became too much.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And so But there's a story attached to every single
ball marker, including there's Little Luke the duck ones, which
I noticed one of my mates pick went out recently,
which was Jared Lyle, who is a fantastic golfer. He
used to play with PGA two. He got an amazing hole
in one. He passed away and was a friend of mine,
very friend. They'd made up these little Luke the Duck
(18:48):
for leukemia and all the money was going proceeds were
going to research for leukemia. And so one of his
was in there recently and again now I see that
one and if I'm if I want to play, well,
I want Jared.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So he's like you Caddy, Yeah, it's that back of
ants exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Sometimes I'll go, I'll choose that today and lovely and
recently I was saying that a friend of mine took
his own life. He was a big poker player, and
at his memorial they gave out all his he is
to have Hurricane. His name is Hurdy Hurricane Herdy poker
chips and so if you ever around his house he
had this. It came out and he played currency in
his own chips and generally beat you all. So it
(19:25):
was not nice to go around to play. But they
handed out all these chips and then I'm using one
as a bollmarker. So again you go.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So you're telling me you're not a sentimental man. And
actually you're incredibly sentimental.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Well yeah, they'd say you are, yes, but I don't think.
It's more like I don't have stuff. I am sent
I am a sentiment, a person.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Couch of thirty stuff, just stuff of legends we could
have just bought, gone through the pouch and you'll have
thirty stories about each of those. And it isn't just
why you played. It's a time and place, just like
a little time traveling device.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, and you always remember who you there with, and
also being a golf for you how you played as well.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Oh that nime is terrible.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
But what I find interesting, I mean I never I'm
not the golf that cares about how I play. I
do in the moment, but I just love being out
there and walking around. So I'll get home and hedge
pass oh terribly and you're go, oh sorry, I was like, nah,
I just got to walk around.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Like what fall off five hours And you know, in
Australia anywhere in the world is a nice place. You're
out in nature.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So yeah, it's important, and that little pouch is probably
the important one to me.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I love that so far. Andy, you selected your dog
and a pouch of ball markers, what's your third and
final item for us?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's an odd one, but this is one of the
things that I've collected and kept. It's an engraved gavel,
like Judges gavel.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I'm familiar with gud. I want to know why you
owned such.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's not because whenever Becks had a misdemeanor against me
in the house, I'd suddenly start my own court. This
is the fourth day in a rogue. You haven't unpacked
the dishwasher. How do you plead?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Why have you got a gavel? That's not just that
that's engraved.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I had to include something between Hamish and I. It's
a aim is such a big part of my life,
and there is down to the pool room in my
beach house. It's a shrine to Hamishni. He actually stayed
with his family and I worried that Sunny was going
to go down and go gee, this guy's really into
your day an.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
A Partridge episode where there's that super fun's.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Crazy. Yes. So Hamish and I started our first company
when we were kind of twenty one, because we were
advised that as a duo we needed a company that
we both owned and all the contracts would be going
through that for the TV show, first TV show we did,
and the radio shows, etc. And we are the chairman
(22:07):
of that company and there's only two people. There's a lead,
two employees that are us.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
It's like diggy hows.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And when we started going well on the radio show
over at Southern sorry Yosteria at the time, the chairman
of Usteria was a fellow called Peter Harvey. I think
you've met, one of the ACCRA Awards. And the other
chairman was the chairman of Village Road Show, a fellow
called John Kirby, and they would take us out for
(22:34):
dinner and the first one it was deemed by Peter
Harvey that this was a chairman's dinner. We've got the
chairman of your company the chairman of ours. Now their
companies were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, ours not
so much. But we went on to have probably eight
(22:55):
over ten years chairman's dinners with John Kirby and Peter
Harvey again just passed away just recently, but it was
a remarkable thing and gifts would be exchanged. It became
a tradition. They gave us this gavel that just said
once a chairman, always a chairman. It says Chairman Harmby,
(23:16):
Chairman Kirby, Chairman Lee, chairman Blake. That became the tradition.
So I've got a few things. We've got a knife
that says, you know, once a chairman, always a chairman.
Same with an axe and some paper and the gavel though,
was the first kind of gift, and it was such
a unique gift to give.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Someone now when you're starting out in the early days
on your journey as well, and so many things come
and change over the years when you work in our industry, right,
people come and go out of your lives. That's quite
consistent having that lunch over those years as you change
over the years, as they.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Do, absolutely, and then you realize as we get older
and you'd feel the same. You realize these guys didn't
have to do no like and you realize how inclusive
that was. That is such a lovely thing. And then
in chatting to Pete's family, she was saying that he's
(24:07):
sort of saying he loved these dimers so much, and
you forgot that you were giving them a sense of excitement,
an ex sense to tell stories and feel a bit
younger again and mark around. And so we became great friends,
and you know, when someone's kind of eighty forty years
older than you and you can be regarded as a friend.
(24:29):
That doesn't happen very quick now. And also it's just
like you know, you can share. They've got experience and
their wisdom, and I'm sure looking at you two way younger,
very early on the journey, they saw part of themselves
and just how exciting it is to be around that
that energy when everything's new, everything's possible. And so people
(24:49):
have asked me you had mentors over the years, and
we all kind of do, and some of the same
age as you, and that I suppose it feels like
with Halves and Kirby, the first people where I realized
that they were mentors and actually lent on them as such.
If there was a hard deal as we were going
along or something, you could ring up Harvey, Chairman Harvey
(25:10):
and go, hey, mate, this is films a bit peculiar,
and He'll go, okay, I'll have a look at that
for you, and I'll give you advice. And he was
such a strong hand, It's such a lovely little people person,
strong hand, but you knew you were safe around him
and Hamish and I had one incident that I won't
say the specifics off that was gonna It felt like
(25:31):
it was getting out of control and could have been
damaging to our brand, and it was unfair what had
kind of happened. But you know, at the media sometimes
it can get away from you. And we were told
to stay in this room before the ratio is just
think about the radio show. We'll see if we can
get sorted. And it ten to four. Knock on the
door and it was Harvey and he just goes, gentlemen,
(25:55):
it's sorted, with a smile and just walked away. And
Haim turned me and said, I feel like when a
mob boss gets someone taken out.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Someone got whacked.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I don't know what's happened. I don't care, but I'm
really pleased I.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Could grown up and coming and shorted it outfit.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yes, exactly, And so that's how I felt with Has,
you could present a problem and he'd be very quick
to offer a solution that gave you confidence. Not a
confidence solution from him, but a solution that gave you
confidence to go in a certain direction. And I think
that's the best type of mentor.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I think sometimes the mentors in our lives you only
really realized they were a mentor, right when you look
back and he realized, Oh, now I know what was
going on between us. I thought we're hanging out once
a year. There was so much more than that. I
had people like that who were ten twenty years older
than me, and I didn't realize what was going on
at the time until suddenly you lose them, and then
(26:54):
he wis, oh, I got so much from that. I'm
going to miss just hanging out with them. Yeah. You
know when you look back, and I always think I
must pay that back.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I'm in front of someone like, there's someone here, right,
it's very new, very junior, very raw like I was,
and he's wide eyed with excitement, and I'm like, ah, yeah, right,
I must take you out for lunch like people have
taken me out for lunch. And sometimes it isn't about oh,
in your career, you've got to do this, and it
isn't about that you just talk about anything, but you're
getting something from them. They're representing something you don't have yet.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, I totally agree, And that's some of the learnings
from those people. You go, I got to grow so much.
But in hearing that they are getting so much out
of it, it'll be great for my own We'll.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Just forget that part of it what someone else is
also getting from something.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And I think that you're right. When we find those
people in life that we can help out, you do
get a lot of self worth out of it as well.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
How do you feel when you see younger sort of
raw talent. What does it make you feel? For me,
it reminds me how lucky I am to still do
this and night this is so exciting. Sometimes it's that
trying to marry up experience where it's not at the
expense of innocence. Still, both of those it's really hard
when the long you go you've like seen it all.
It's so I'm terrible. I watched a TV show sometimes
(28:05):
or I here's something ready to go. Yeah that's clever,
and I'm devoid of the feeling from it. And it's
just like when I take a break from the show
and to come back to it, I fall back in
love with Like when I see the caller is coming,
I'm like, this is amazing. Yes, this is still such
an incredible thing to put out there and people interact
with you still get that yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I mean with young people. The thing I often say
is you're nowhere near as good as me.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Join us. I thought you left.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
No, it's similar things. The one thing I think often
now is gosh, I'm glad I wasn't in this period
of time. I always think how lucky we were. I'm
not sure what have how the career I've had, actually no,
because it is so difficult. There is so many avenues
to try and be seen. So people argue the opposite.
They're like, yeah, but you didn't have TikTok, YouTube and
(28:58):
Instagram all and stuff, so how hell did you even
be found? I was like, yeah, but how can you
be found in that sea of stuff? The other thing
is to make something, to craft something. Was quite difficult
to edit a piece, and now you can just do
it on your phone in two seconds, so you could
gain a competitive advantage just by caring. Yes, totally, So,
(29:19):
haymis should I talk about? We used to do a
Tonight's show called Rove back in the day, and we
had a lot of hidden camera pieces and a lot
of silly things, but we'd craft them within an inch
of their life, and people did not have TikTok or
Instagram so they would look forward to Tuesday night to
see what is the selling prank that some of these
guys are going to do. Now you see twelve of
(29:40):
them just by going to the toilet. Nowadays, where there's.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
An abundance of it, it's not original anymore.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
It doesn't feel as original. And also their quality of
them are great, like yeah, because all everyone can just
film wherever where So the fact that we cared to
hire equipment and work out how to edit and so
on already cut us from the pack. So it must
be really difficult to get seen. And also I feel
that content at the moment is just so disposable. It
(30:09):
literally a flash in the pan. You can be ondo
a great idea, but the trend leaves you immediately. So
how do people get better if you can't sit with something?
And how can you refine that when you can't afford
to sit with something? I find that really difficult.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, and you know what it's like to get better
at anything, you need to apprentice yourself to right. I'm
still learning right about radio off for twenty four years.
I am there was something today around I was, ah, right,
I shouldn't do it that way. There's an easier way
to do it now, I'll do it like that. It's
like people don't get the opportunity now to have that,
you know, to be given a year or two. When
I look back, I wasn't very good for a long time,
(30:43):
but I worked it and I can and I saw
it as an apprenticeship at where you go aside, nowadays people
get fired very quickly. There are no bosses going he's raw,
give him time, he needs more time. They don't have
that anymore. It's brutal.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
And as the market shrinks, as in the individual markets,
the market is expanding for content, but individual channels are
shrinking in audience numbers. So with online audio, I mean
even when we started radio and there was no digital stations,
let alone online audio, you know, Martin molloy, before us,
there was no Nova, there was no there was so
(31:19):
there was two less actual stations.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
You know, like, dam man, what a time to be
doing radio.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, And so you have this strange thing where the
channels are becoming more and more void of audience. So
those in charge need big names to try and draw
attention back to those channels, which means that younger people
it's very difficult for them to get a go because
it's so risky for a bigger network to go. Okay,
(31:46):
let's give these no names ago even and I say
no names as in not known.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
They're not a profile.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, they might be doing brilliant stuff, but how can
we put them on versus someone we know audience already
knows and may get them to the channel. So it's really.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Difficult, I tell you what though, it's incesly you talk
about caring because I know you still care and everything
you do I do right. People don't understand why I
still do now it's like, but that's the joy of it.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And when I don't care anymore, I shouldn't be doing
this anymore because it will come on it we receive
like that. Yeah, and there's enough stuff out there. We
don't need more stuff. We need more stuff that people
care about. It's what the world needs in all different platforms.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, I amission. I've only ever done a two year
contractor the longest we've ever done.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah, it's funny. I only even did that until it
came here. My Australian boss was like, it's going to
be really hard for you. You'll need a long term contract.
It's only when I landed in, I realized, actually, yeah,
this is a long term gome here because there's going
to be no early wins. They do know, they were
not ready for an English guy in the morning. They
didn't know it's about no names, no names and English right.
(32:47):
They were like, no, thank you and not in the morning.
I do go back to wherever you came from. But yeah,
you're right. It's the caring thing is really important.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And that's the reason we did it. People go, that's
that's because you knew it was going to get bigger
so you could reunicate. I was like, god, no, no, no, no.
The only thing we were worried about is will we
still want to do this, And we still worry about
that because we know the show's only at its best
if we're still pumped to do it, and thankfully we
do still.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Want to do it soon. Enjoy hanging out together.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
It's your favorite that it's my favorite part of the
week after twenty years. And we've also got a little
agreement between the two of us that you opt in
every two years. No one's opting out, so there's no
hard feelings if you don't to opt back in. So
I Haim turned to me tomorrow and said, I think
this has been fun that I want to try something else.
(33:37):
It's like, great, hasn't it? Bloody been a wild ride?
And that's also great to know that I don't have
to feel the pressure of keeping him in this job
and vice versa, and so yeah, it purely comes down
to are we still loving this? Do we still think
we're good at it? Do we still think that people
will like it?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yeah, let's do it lovely, Andy, that was lovely. Thank
you for being my guest. For someone who came on
and said they're not very sentimental, there's plenty of heart
in you. Thank you much. You're not the tin man.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Thank cop that Alex my sister.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
See, sometimes the stories we tell ourselves aren't always true.
Maybe we outgrow them, or we can tell new stories.
And he is someone who clearly seeks out the joy
in life and always finds this story in whatever he does.
Maybe there's something in that for you and I so
you don't miss out on other legends. Follows the Stuff
of Legends on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Christian O'Connell and
(34:33):
hopefully chatting next time on the Stuff of Legends. If
you or someone you care about need support services are
available in Australia. You can call Lifeline on thirteen eleven
(34:56):
fourteen or Beyond Blue on thirteen hundred double two four
six three six. If you listen to this outside of Australia,
please check the show notes for websites that can help you.
If you're in an emergency or an immediate risk of
harm to yourself or others, please call Triple zero in
Australia or emergency services in your country.
Our lives are made up of stories, and sometimes the
stories we tell ourselves about ourselves aren't always true. The
stuff we choose to hold on to, the things we
decide to cherish, can reveal more about ourselves than we realize.
I'm Christian O'Connell and this is stuff of legends. I've
asked some of the one's most interesting people to tell
me the story. Are three of their most treasured objects
(00:24):
and items, and tell us the stories behind them. I
want to add in a content warning here we do
start to talk about suicide and self harm. Now, if
that is too much for you today, I completely understand
that maybe today's show isn't for you today. One half
of Australia's most beloved duo is here. He's one of
the most successful radio and podcast presenters in Australia and
(00:47):
the world. He is a children's book author and hosts
of a big TV show, The one hundred on Channel nine.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm Andy Lee, the better half of Hamish and Andy,
although that's probably disputed by my parents as well. I'd imagine.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Now, Andy, was it interesting going through and picking your
three items to tell me about?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
This is? I nearly called you yesterday because I don't
keep things, so like.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
You know, I've been around your place. It's like Robert
Dennaire in the movie Heat. It's like you're ready for
the police at any moment you can go.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So I thought, oh, stuff a Legends coming up, this
would be this is great. I like the pod, So
what am I going to present my things? And then
I was like, I don't have things in my house.
So I did my own walking tour of my house
to see this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Is what you want to do? House into a museum's
this piece, this artact exactly to go what is it
for me?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And it occurred to me that I'm a terrible guest
for this show, because are you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I'm not so right. So you're not sentiment on nostalgia.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, I do love memories mainly through story. I like
catching up with someone for a beer and going, hey,
remember the time we did this. I never took photos
growing up. Hamish was in charge of the camera when
we first started hanging out, so he has all the photos.
And then when camera phones came in, I started.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
To a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So it was tough. This was tough.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It was a tough asung. So you've got like very
little stuff to say childhood or nothing, your career, what
about your beloved footy teen Carlton.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, I've got near not much.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I was about to say, I do know why. I'm
familiar with the history. There's not a lot of good
time memories that are there the mementos. All right, Andy Lee,
how did you go on the walking tour of your home?
What's your first item?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah? So the first thing, as I was walking around
my house, my dog was just following me and I
looked at an object one Henry the dog. Now I'm
not sure whether that.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, I would say that Russell Brand mentioned his passed away.
So we have had a dead cat, We've got a
very alive dog. Yes, so yeah, tell us about your dog.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And then when again, when you look at something and
you're forced to understand how sentimental it is to you
to give people perspective of where I've come from from dog.
I never wanted any pets. We never grew up with
any pets whatsoever. No, because my parents thought they grew
up on farms. Dogs were either to herd cattle. There
(03:28):
was no such thing as a dog inside, you know,
certainly not hand feeding it or letting it sleep between
Beck and I would just be a non So I've
always been appalled by people with pets. I thought it
was a waste of Seriously, I thought it was a
waste of time. Why would you pick up after them?
Why would you give yourself extra responsibility?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
All these things.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
And as Beck and I progressed their relationship, and she
just constantly asked me for a dog. My first girlfriend Ella,
she wanted me to get a dog as well, and
I was like, no, they're a waste of time, space,
all that kind of thing. And so she got me
a hermit crab to try and start me that.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Starter thing for anyone. Hermit crabs give you nothing, no
unconditional love, which is what pets.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Give us exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Hermit crabs by their name hermits, They actually don't want
to hang out, and they're.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Not sophistic enough, sophisticate enough to text you or anything.
So and if you walk into the room, they tend
to see you and then just go back in.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So, very very rarely did I see Hermie the hermit crab,
and it didn't start me on my pet loving journey.
Although one day we walked into this study where it
was because I was still living at home with Mom
and dad, and I just looked. I just caught the
hermit crab without a shell on which never happens. It's
looked like a little tiny nude prawn and.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Like dark fade.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It was helmet, it was and it was panicked and
and and and and looking at me completely nude, as
if I had caught it as up to something. And
I was like, well, there's a bit peculiar. But I
just kind of left it and then it died, and
I was like, what what is it? What was it
doing before it happened? So I since looked it up
(05:18):
and the one of the one of the blogs said
that hermit crabs often crawl into a shell before they
release their other shell, and then so they've actually moved
kind of from house to house, as if they butt
the front door. They're two houses up together.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So they can open one door and kind of go
straight into another one because they don't want to be exposed.
They need to have a shield, yes, And sometimes as
they crawl in there, the shell gets stuck in the
bigger shell and they can't finish the move.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's just a sad story.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So it essentially got locked out of its house. This
is a pixel and was running around nude for a
while and then died from a harassment.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's a shame of it, poor old hermy, hermy.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, so the hermit crab didn't start in my journeys,
but I when I got Henrietta mainly got it for back.
There's there's absolutely no doubt.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
So did you surprise her? It was just a joint,
you surprised.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I surprised her. We've talked about getting a dog. I'd
succumbed to it and I said, okay, we might do this,
and then I surprised her, and I thought this will
be her dog. I'll enjoy watching her enjoy it. But
I I am.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So you've got dog? Yeah, all right, you love that dog.
I love this, she seems with you. I love this dogs.
I brought my dog from England to here when we
moved here. We've now got another dog. But they're not
on the bed.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
No. Well, what it's done to me for the for
the deeper emotional part of this, which you know may
sound sappy, is that I understand the how important it
is to care for other things yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I've got to say, right, you are slightly portraying some
sort of psychopathic man. People know he was lovable and
now they're hearing you some could I now understand human emotions?
Andy has joined us.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Well, my my sister called me the tin man when
we're growing up. That was my nickname for if I
only had a half And so it wasn't like I
don't love people, love things, because.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
You're fiercely loyalty Prince, you are.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I am and family. I just yeah, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yes, So what why did you pick that top of dog? First? All?
Tell us then what type of breeder is?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's a Welsh Terrier beautiful dogs, beautiful dogs, but can't
understand it when it speaks as the Welsh wonderful singing yes,
great in a choir, lots of consonants and not being
abound and the voice as well. I again, this is
going to go back to me being making sure that
(07:58):
this dog was going to be the right fit. I
went through dogs that don't park much, dogs are good
round kids because I love my nephews.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah that's sensible though.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Dogs that don't shed yep, and don't grow too big. Yeah,
dogs that can run fast and go for a jog,
because I would like I thought the idea of going
for take.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
A sports team recruiting a player looking for on the trade.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
A bit like that, so that all love I Love
Island or The Bachelor. So I'm just getting all these
tick bogs. So we picked the breed off that and
nailed it like this. This dog is.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Perse went to see a breeder. Yeah, okay, and you
see like a litter, don't you? And I don't think
there's any human being that can ever leave that not
having picked one of them out. W do you see
those little cute dogs.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Our situation was interesting because they're so hard to get
Welsh Terriers. We had to wait for eighteen months.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
What yeah, and obviously you are I don't mat me
saying there's a man of me. That doesn't mean anything,
does it? Got those breeders. There's no que jumping.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
No, there's no cue jumping. And so eighteen months I
got a text and that's why Beck and I were
going to do this together. But then we waited for
so long and Bet kept asking. I was like, I've
checked back in with him, and then I got this
email saying we've had a letter. You next in line,
and I thought you are.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Let's it's not IV for adopting a kid.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, no, sorry, they had a litter, yes, But an
email came through saying the litter has arrived and you
can come and get it. And that's when I thought, oh,
maybe I don't tell Beck about this. We've we waited
so long. This will be a great surprise. And she
was so happy.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
How did you surprise her?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I I was. I went and grabbed it, pretending I
was going to golf. So I've got a whole golf
gear on and a very elaborate set up, and I
drove out to lily Dale, which is about an hour
out of Melbourne, got the pup. I'd already got all
the supplies and stashed them at my parents' house, so
I didn't want to just come home and go, we've
got a dog and nothing to.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Andy man, what are we gonna do with all the
other stuff?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So I picked up all that stuff and then picked
up the dog. And we'd already decided Henrietta was going
to be the name. I don't know why, I can't remember.
So got home. Beck was upstairs and I snuck the
dog downstairs. And as for everything, you have to film
everything these days, so I set up a little camera
and I said, hey, can you come down and help
me put my golf clubs away? And she said, yesterday
(10:22):
I did. I'd be filming that and I've never ever
asked her to do. And for people who.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Play golf, he's had a bad rail.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It's not hard, they're not heavy. So she came down
and what was funny was she just returned from the supermarket.
So the one she loves this video because her instant
emotion of just is that she says, it's that Henrietta.
That's the first thing she says, and then just bursts
(10:51):
in tears. But on reflection, she regrets holding a chicken
from coals on the supermarket. That little snap plastic ba
plastic bag she's just because she slightly puts. People refer
to them as the bachelor's handbag because it's what you
always is to eat if you're single. So she puts
(11:15):
down the bachelor's handbag and picks up Henriette. It was
instant love. But also for me at that time, just
instant I loved beckmore, which is weird because you see
how much care and that that.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's so a different part of her comes out.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Comes out of immediately and then in the last eighteen
months of having Henrietta, it's just a different type of
relationship between me and the dog, me and back. But
also I just I see these you get home, no
matter what your day is, they're just there.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And people love pets. They are not pets. They give
you this unconditional love and you're right, no matter what
day you've had and how you are when you come
through the door, they're just like, hey, I love you.
And it's an incredible feeling it gives you. Yeah, it's
not every morning when I get a but four thirty
there's everyone's asleep in the house. The only person that's
away I'm happy to say, I'm not even happy to
be about, are my two dogs. And they give that
(12:11):
little stroke on the head. The joy you get from
just rubbing the head and sniffing the top of the
head is indescribable.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And they can sense how are you feeling, which is
just incredible. If Beck and I have gone through a
tough patch. We had a recent loss in our life
and I was so sad a friend of mine took
his own life and and Beck Beck was unsure what
to kind of do as well, you know, does this
a person one space in this type of moments. But
we spend a lot of time and I spent a
(12:37):
lot of time on the couch and looking at old
things and photos that we had together. And the dog
will just come and just lae its head on your lap.
The eye and the eyes are different. It's not like
I'm bored and want to be comfy. It's like I'm here.
I'm not going to say anything because I can't, and
if I did, it's well and I wouldn understand it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
But they have that, they have the presence, which is
what all of us needing a tough time, someone to
be present with us exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And I think we can take a bit from that,
like just sitting there and saying nothing is actually just
as important as anything.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And so because when someone's going through a tough time,
a lot of us are frightened about reaching out because
oh I don't know what to say, and she writes,
your job isn't to say anything, just let them feel
heard and just be there. It's being almost like a witness,
which is what a pet does, just a witness. Really
you're not saying anything, but why is this giving me something? Right?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And it's perfect for Beck because Beck, I don't really
When Beck's complaining about something, I tend to want to
find the solution.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's like the same argument I've been having from what
with my wife for twenty four years. I still haven't
heard that lesson. Yeah. Yeah, and with my daughters as well.
They just want to be like, Dad, what you're doing? Well,
I just trying to help you. No, you're trying to
fix it. Stop it. Why are you telling me? Just
leave a voice? Smell you talk about me?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I won't exactly, So now I just give her the dog. So, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Amazing how it's changed, not just your relationship, Bet, it's
changed you. I know it absolutely changed me, and you
can never know that actually experience it.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
No, and so funny that I'm a bit of a
workaholic and I like staying back, I like checking everything.
But Beck says, hey, I've gone out, the dog hasn't
had to walk. I'll leave the edit and go and
make sure the dog has a line, and you go,
How could I have thought that this was ever going
to be me? And I understand the same happens with children.
(14:29):
I don't have them, but like, he's.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So vulnerable, you love them so much. And there's also
that ever thought where your heart is sowhuch go. Oh
my word, if anything ever happened to you, I'd be devastating,
which is why when when pets do die, people are
so upset like you are. Actually, we had a dog
that the kids grew up with, and he passed away
about six years ago, right, And I remember I was
even the vet when he said, hey, he's passed away.
(14:53):
And I came in the vet as he was telling me,
because he'd been treating this dog for like ten years,
started to cry and then I star cry, it's so moving.
And then he goes, do you want to say goodbye
to him? And he pulled me into a little side room, right,
and the dog was lying on the floor, and he said,
do you want to keep some of his furst? So
I cut some of his woe. Both of us are
sobbing as I'm doing this, as I'm trimming his verve,
(15:14):
and I could still feel his energy there though. Yeah,
it was such a Yeah, patstick up a big place
in the heart, don't.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
They Well they do now previously though.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Not there for that tin man. Now there's a dog
in that tin soup. Okay, Andy, So your first item
is Henrietta your dog. What have you chosen as your
second item? On stuff of legends?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
You're going to have to there is a story to
this because it sounds it's golf related.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, I knew at some point we're going to have
something golf related.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I have a pouch of ball markers. And for non
golf golfers out there, essentially, when a ball lands on
the green near the hole, you're allowed to pick the
ball up and clean it. And so you put a
ball marker down and then then you put your ball
and it knows where your ball is. And also it's fair,
it's fair, and it allows other people say if they're
(16:13):
partting past your ball, they're not going to hit your ball.
So that's what you flew a flat ball mark down
and I've got a pouch of them and I love it.
And so how many is in the pouch? Well probably
about thirty five to forty that's a lot. Yeah, because
you don't need to mark the ball.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
No, not just but.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I played a game of golf. Golfs I find is incredible.
I'm not going I don't want people switching off here.
I promise you'll get your back, because I know people
find golf boring because often you get paired with people
that you've never met before and you have to beend
four and a half hoursand and that can be awful.
But often it's great because like minded people are there.
You understand the game, and it's the perfect It's unlike
(16:54):
sitting on a train next to someone who wants to
keep talking to you. You've got the perfect distraction while
it is OK, yeah, you can just hit the all
in a different direction to that person on purpose and
walk away from them.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And but you shanked it on purpose.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So I played a game with a fellow Brian Dormer
I think was his name, never met him before before.
We've teed off. He pulled out a pouch, so I've
stolen this idea, and he said, pick out a ball marker.
And every club in the world, no matter where you play,
has their own little ball markers, like little distinctive they.
So I picked one out and and he said what
(17:30):
did you get? And I said, oh, Saint George, I
ad a, sorry, it's England whatever. I can't remember this specifics,
but he had his own memory of that course, oh wow.
And it got ignited by the fact that I'd pulled
out and he had one hundred and fifty ball markers
in there, and he said, I always grab two whenever
every club I ever go to, I grabed two, one
(17:51):
for my own patch and one to give to my guests,
and every time I play with What a lovely.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Generous thing to do.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yes, So now I've got so I started doing the
same thing, and it's a great conversation starter, total ice
breaker where I'll say to someone, hey, pick one out
and they go Pebble Beach. I was like, oh yeah,
I went to Pebble Beach, just like below Sam Frown.
We took all my friends there. I played so terribly.
We spent all this money to go there, and I
(18:15):
had the worst four rounds of my life.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You were you are a very good golf I know.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I think the moment just and was at the moment and.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The place like it's one of the greatest courses in
the world, Zach became too much.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And so But there's a story attached to every single
ball marker, including there's Little Luke the duck ones, which
I noticed one of my mates pick went out recently,
which was Jared Lyle, who is a fantastic golfer. He
used to play with PGA two. He got an amazing hole
in one. He passed away and was a friend of mine,
very friend. They'd made up these little Luke the Duck
(18:48):
for leukemia and all the money was going proceeds were
going to research for leukemia. And so one of his
was in there recently and again now I see that
one and if I'm if I want to play, well,
I want Jared.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So he's like you Caddy, Yeah, it's that back of
ants exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Sometimes I'll go, I'll choose that today and lovely and
recently I was saying that a friend of mine took
his own life. He was a big poker player, and
at his memorial they gave out all his he is
to have Hurricane. His name is Hurdy Hurricane Herdy poker
chips and so if you ever around his house he
had this. It came out and he played currency in
his own chips and generally beat you all. So it
(19:25):
was not nice to go around to play. But they
handed out all these chips and then I'm using one
as a bollmarker. So again you go.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So you're telling me you're not a sentimental man. And
actually you're incredibly sentimental.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Well yeah, they'd say you are, yes, but I don't think.
It's more like I don't have stuff. I am sent
I am a sentiment, a person.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Couch of thirty stuff, just stuff of legends we could
have just bought, gone through the pouch and you'll have
thirty stories about each of those. And it isn't just
why you played. It's a time and place, just like
a little time traveling device.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, and you always remember who you there with, and
also being a golf for you how you played as well.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Oh that nime is terrible.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
But what I find interesting, I mean I never I'm
not the golf that cares about how I play. I
do in the moment, but I just love being out
there and walking around. So I'll get home and hedge
pass oh terribly and you're go, oh sorry, I was like, nah,
I just got to walk around.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Like what fall off five hours And you know, in
Australia anywhere in the world is a nice place. You're
out in nature.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So yeah, it's important, and that little pouch is probably
the important one to me.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I love that so far. Andy, you selected your dog
and a pouch of ball markers, what's your third and
final item for us?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's an odd one, but this is one of the
things that I've collected and kept. It's an engraved gavel,
like Judges gavel.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I'm familiar with gud. I want to know why you
owned such.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's not because whenever Becks had a misdemeanor against me
in the house, I'd suddenly start my own court. This
is the fourth day in a rogue. You haven't unpacked
the dishwasher. How do you plead?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Why have you got a gavel? That's not just that
that's engraved.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I had to include something between Hamish and I. It's
a aim is such a big part of my life,
and there is down to the pool room in my
beach house. It's a shrine to Hamishni. He actually stayed
with his family and I worried that Sunny was going
to go down and go gee, this guy's really into
your day an.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
A Partridge episode where there's that super fun's.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Crazy. Yes. So Hamish and I started our first company
when we were kind of twenty one, because we were
advised that as a duo we needed a company that
we both owned and all the contracts would be going
through that for the TV show, first TV show we did,
and the radio shows, etc. And we are the chairman
(22:07):
of that company and there's only two people. There's a lead,
two employees that are us.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
It's like diggy hows.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And when we started going well on the radio show
over at Southern sorry Yosteria at the time, the chairman
of Usteria was a fellow called Peter Harvey. I think
you've met, one of the ACCRA Awards. And the other
chairman was the chairman of Village Road Show, a fellow
called John Kirby, and they would take us out for
(22:34):
dinner and the first one it was deemed by Peter
Harvey that this was a chairman's dinner. We've got the
chairman of your company the chairman of ours. Now their
companies were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, ours not
so much. But we went on to have probably eight
(22:55):
over ten years chairman's dinners with John Kirby and Peter
Harvey again just passed away just recently, but it was
a remarkable thing and gifts would be exchanged. It became
a tradition. They gave us this gavel that just said
once a chairman, always a chairman. It says Chairman Harmby,
(23:16):
Chairman Kirby, Chairman Lee, chairman Blake. That became the tradition.
So I've got a few things. We've got a knife
that says, you know, once a chairman, always a chairman.
Same with an axe and some paper and the gavel though,
was the first kind of gift, and it was such
a unique gift to give.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Someone now when you're starting out in the early days
on your journey as well, and so many things come
and change over the years when you work in our industry, right,
people come and go out of your lives. That's quite
consistent having that lunch over those years as you change
over the years, as they.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Do, absolutely, and then you realize as we get older
and you'd feel the same. You realize these guys didn't
have to do no like and you realize how inclusive
that was. That is such a lovely thing. And then
in chatting to Pete's family, she was saying that he's
(24:07):
sort of saying he loved these dimers so much, and
you forgot that you were giving them a sense of excitement,
an ex sense to tell stories and feel a bit
younger again and mark around. And so we became great friends,
and you know, when someone's kind of eighty forty years
older than you and you can be regarded as a friend.
(24:29):
That doesn't happen very quick now. And also it's just
like you know, you can share. They've got experience and
their wisdom, and I'm sure looking at you two way younger,
very early on the journey, they saw part of themselves
and just how exciting it is to be around that
that energy when everything's new, everything's possible. And so people
(24:49):
have asked me you had mentors over the years, and
we all kind of do, and some of the same
age as you, and that I suppose it feels like
with Halves and Kirby, the first people where I realized
that they were mentors and actually lent on them as such.
If there was a hard deal as we were going
along or something, you could ring up Harvey, Chairman Harvey
(25:10):
and go, hey, mate, this is films a bit peculiar,
and He'll go, okay, I'll have a look at that
for you, and I'll give you advice. And he was
such a strong hand, It's such a lovely little people person,
strong hand, but you knew you were safe around him
and Hamish and I had one incident that I won't
say the specifics off that was gonna It felt like
(25:31):
it was getting out of control and could have been
damaging to our brand, and it was unfair what had
kind of happened. But you know, at the media sometimes
it can get away from you. And we were told
to stay in this room before the ratio is just
think about the radio show. We'll see if we can
get sorted. And it ten to four. Knock on the
door and it was Harvey and he just goes, gentlemen,
(25:55):
it's sorted, with a smile and just walked away. And
Haim turned me and said, I feel like when a
mob boss gets someone taken out.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Someone got whacked.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I don't know what's happened. I don't care, but I'm
really pleased I.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Could grown up and coming and shorted it outfit.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yes, exactly, And so that's how I felt with Has,
you could present a problem and he'd be very quick
to offer a solution that gave you confidence. Not a
confidence solution from him, but a solution that gave you
confidence to go in a certain direction. And I think
that's the best type of mentor.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I think sometimes the mentors in our lives you only
really realized they were a mentor, right when you look
back and he realized, Oh, now I know what was
going on between us. I thought we're hanging out once
a year. There was so much more than that. I
had people like that who were ten twenty years older
than me, and I didn't realize what was going on
at the time until suddenly you lose them, and then
(26:54):
he wis, oh, I got so much from that. I'm
going to miss just hanging out with them. Yeah. You
know when you look back, and I always think I
must pay that back.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I'm in front of someone like, there's someone here, right,
it's very new, very junior, very raw like I was,
and he's wide eyed with excitement, and I'm like, ah, yeah, right,
I must take you out for lunch like people have
taken me out for lunch. And sometimes it isn't about oh,
in your career, you've got to do this, and it
isn't about that you just talk about anything, but you're
getting something from them. They're representing something you don't have yet.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, I totally agree, And that's some of the learnings
from those people. You go, I got to grow so much.
But in hearing that they are getting so much out
of it, it'll be great for my own We'll.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Just forget that part of it what someone else is
also getting from something.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And I think that you're right. When we find those
people in life that we can help out, you do
get a lot of self worth out of it as well.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
How do you feel when you see younger sort of
raw talent. What does it make you feel? For me,
it reminds me how lucky I am to still do
this and night this is so exciting. Sometimes it's that
trying to marry up experience where it's not at the
expense of innocence. Still, both of those it's really hard
when the long you go you've like seen it all.
It's so I'm terrible. I watched a TV show sometimes
(28:05):
or I here's something ready to go. Yeah that's clever,
and I'm devoid of the feeling from it. And it's
just like when I take a break from the show
and to come back to it, I fall back in
love with Like when I see the caller is coming,
I'm like, this is amazing. Yes, this is still such
an incredible thing to put out there and people interact
with you still get that yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I mean with young people. The thing I often say
is you're nowhere near as good as me.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Join us. I thought you left.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
No, it's similar things. The one thing I think often
now is gosh, I'm glad I wasn't in this period
of time. I always think how lucky we were. I'm
not sure what have how the career I've had, actually no,
because it is so difficult. There is so many avenues
to try and be seen. So people argue the opposite.
They're like, yeah, but you didn't have TikTok, YouTube and
(28:58):
Instagram all and stuff, so how hell did you even
be found? I was like, yeah, but how can you
be found in that sea of stuff? The other thing
is to make something, to craft something. Was quite difficult
to edit a piece, and now you can just do
it on your phone in two seconds, so you could
gain a competitive advantage just by caring. Yes, totally, So,
(29:19):
haymis should I talk about? We used to do a
Tonight's show called Rove back in the day, and we
had a lot of hidden camera pieces and a lot
of silly things, but we'd craft them within an inch
of their life, and people did not have TikTok or
Instagram so they would look forward to Tuesday night to
see what is the selling prank that some of these
guys are going to do. Now you see twelve of
(29:40):
them just by going to the toilet. Nowadays, where there's.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
An abundance of it, it's not original anymore.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
It doesn't feel as original. And also their quality of
them are great, like yeah, because all everyone can just
film wherever where So the fact that we cared to
hire equipment and work out how to edit and so
on already cut us from the pack. So it must
be really difficult to get seen. And also I feel
that content at the moment is just so disposable. It
(30:09):
literally a flash in the pan. You can be ondo
a great idea, but the trend leaves you immediately. So
how do people get better if you can't sit with something?
And how can you refine that when you can't afford
to sit with something? I find that really difficult.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, and you know what it's like to get better
at anything, you need to apprentice yourself to right. I'm
still learning right about radio off for twenty four years.
I am there was something today around I was, ah, right,
I shouldn't do it that way. There's an easier way
to do it now, I'll do it like that. It's
like people don't get the opportunity now to have that,
you know, to be given a year or two. When
I look back, I wasn't very good for a long time,
(30:43):
but I worked it and I can and I saw
it as an apprenticeship at where you go aside, nowadays people
get fired very quickly. There are no bosses going he's raw,
give him time, he needs more time. They don't have
that anymore. It's brutal.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
And as the market shrinks, as in the individual markets,
the market is expanding for content, but individual channels are
shrinking in audience numbers. So with online audio, I mean
even when we started radio and there was no digital stations,
let alone online audio, you know, Martin molloy, before us,
there was no Nova, there was no there was so
(31:19):
there was two less actual stations.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
You know, like, dam man, what a time to be
doing radio.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, And so you have this strange thing where the
channels are becoming more and more void of audience. So
those in charge need big names to try and draw
attention back to those channels, which means that younger people
it's very difficult for them to get a go because
it's so risky for a bigger network to go. Okay,
(31:46):
let's give these no names ago even and I say
no names as in not known.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
They're not a profile.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, they might be doing brilliant stuff, but how can
we put them on versus someone we know audience already
knows and may get them to the channel. So it's really.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Difficult, I tell you what though, it's incesly you talk
about caring because I know you still care and everything
you do I do right. People don't understand why I
still do now it's like, but that's the joy of it.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And when I don't care anymore, I shouldn't be doing
this anymore because it will come on it we receive
like that. Yeah, and there's enough stuff out there. We
don't need more stuff. We need more stuff that people
care about. It's what the world needs in all different platforms.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, I amission. I've only ever done a two year
contractor the longest we've ever done.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah, it's funny. I only even did that until it
came here. My Australian boss was like, it's going to
be really hard for you. You'll need a long term contract.
It's only when I landed in, I realized, actually, yeah,
this is a long term gome here because there's going
to be no early wins. They do know, they were
not ready for an English guy in the morning. They
didn't know it's about no names, no names and English right.
(32:47):
They were like, no, thank you and not in the morning.
I do go back to wherever you came from. But yeah,
you're right. It's the caring thing is really important.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And that's the reason we did it. People go, that's
that's because you knew it was going to get bigger
so you could reunicate. I was like, god, no, no, no, no.
The only thing we were worried about is will we
still want to do this, And we still worry about
that because we know the show's only at its best
if we're still pumped to do it, and thankfully we
do still.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Want to do it soon. Enjoy hanging out together.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
It's your favorite that it's my favorite part of the
week after twenty years. And we've also got a little
agreement between the two of us that you opt in
every two years. No one's opting out, so there's no
hard feelings if you don't to opt back in. So
I Haim turned to me tomorrow and said, I think
this has been fun that I want to try something else.
(33:37):
It's like, great, hasn't it? Bloody been a wild ride?
And that's also great to know that I don't have
to feel the pressure of keeping him in this job
and vice versa, and so yeah, it purely comes down
to are we still loving this? Do we still think
we're good at it? Do we still think that people
will like it?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yeah, let's do it lovely, Andy, that was lovely. Thank
you for being my guest. For someone who came on
and said they're not very sentimental, there's plenty of heart
in you. Thank you much. You're not the tin man.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Thank cop that Alex my sister.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
See, sometimes the stories we tell ourselves aren't always true.
Maybe we outgrow them, or we can tell new stories.
And he is someone who clearly seeks out the joy
in life and always finds this story in whatever he does.
Maybe there's something in that for you and I so
you don't miss out on other legends. Follows the Stuff
of Legends on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Christian O'Connell and
(34:33):
hopefully chatting next time on the Stuff of Legends. If
you or someone you care about need support services are
available in Australia. You can call Lifeline on thirteen eleven
(34:56):
fourteen or Beyond Blue on thirteen hundred double two four
six three six. If you listen to this outside of Australia,
please check the show notes for websites that can help you.
If you're in an emergency or an immediate risk of
harm to yourself or others, please call Triple zero in
Australia or emergency services in your country.
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