What has Charlie Owen been up to lately? OR Tracing the songs, friendships, and farewells that shaped his guitar across decades

Send us a text

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians

A dobro lick that ended up in a feature film. A blue-tinted photo above the bar at the Gov. A midnight residency that turned into decades of collaborations. Charlie Owen joins us for a warm, unscripted tour through the songs, friendships, and stages that shaped his life in Australian music.

We trade the mythology for the moments: meeting Don Walker in the small hours, saying yes to Tex Perkins for Triple J’s Unplugged, and learning how a Working Class Ringos ballad could hush an arena full of Chisel fans. Charlie opens up about his long run with the Divinyls and the bond with Chrissy Amphlett, the quiet pride of being named among Australia’s best guitarists, and the surprise of discovering that Midnight Rain with Lewis Tillett topped Rolling Stone critics’ list years after the fact. The thread is always the same—collaboration, taste, and putting the song first.

We get into the set he’s bringing to South Australia: a solo, guitar-forward celebration with dobro, electric, acoustic, and a light touch of keys—no loops, no samplers. He explains why he sings now, how certain tracks like Spencer P. Jones’s The New Day of the Dead feel eerily current, and why some songs are too heavy to carry on stage. It’s a candid look at legacy, grief, and the craft of making a room go quiet without turning up the volume. If you care about Australian rock history, storytelling through strings, and the way music keeps our people close, this conversation will stay with you.

Join us, then share the song that changed you. If you enjoy the show, follow, rate, and leave a review—then pass it to a friend who knows every line to a Tex, Don & Charlie record.

What has Charlie Owen been up to lately?  Let's find out!

Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!

Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

Episode Transcript

Cheryl Lee (00:02):
That radio chick you're all we need.
Welcome to the Still Rockin Itpodcast.
Today, Charles Lothian LloydOwen.

(00:54):
Thanks for coming.

Charlie Owen (00:56):
That's all right, Cheryl.
Lothian.
That's just my that's from mymother's side, and Lloyd is from
my father's side.

Cheryl Lee (01:02):
Right.

Charlie Owen (01:03):
Boy, I'm a bit teased for that.

Cheryl Lee (01:06):
I was going to ask because it's not very often you
come across a name that you'veactually never heard of.
What nationality is that from?

Charlie Owen (01:14):
Lothian.
I I think there's a villagecalled Lothian in the UK
somewhere.

Cheryl Lee (01:20):
And is that where your heritage is from?

Charlie Owen (01:22):
Yeah, I was born in in England.

Cheryl Lee (01:24):
Ah, right.

Charlie Owen (01:25):
It came out in three years old or something.

Cheryl Lee (01:28):
Having a quickie today on the Zoom because you're
coming to our fabulous town onthe weekend.
Two great dates, one down atPort Elliot on the Saturday at
the Julian Ray Wine Room and oneat the Weed Chief here in town
on the Sunday, the 5th.
So we're looking forward toseeing you.
And we're going to be luckyenough to be interviewing you

(01:49):
for Rider TV's Legend series.
But we thought we'd just catchup quickly this morning because
we've got loads and loads ofquestions to ask.

Charlie Owen (01:58):
It's good to be on the show too, because you know,
the more the merrier at thesesort of gigs.
And you know, I just need toget it out there to all the
folks.
I have a long history in music,and I'm sure a lot of people
know at least some of the thingsthat I've done over my life,
and that's what the show is allabout, really.

Cheryl Lee (02:14):
The uh list of your credits is longer than both my
arms put together.
Everybody's wanted to play withyou over the years, haven't
they?

Charlie Owen (02:23):
Yes, it's been a wonderful thing, really.
I've played with um just abouteverybody, you know, who's
influential in Australian music,really.
I'm not a session musician byany stretch of the imagination.
I've been a guest and acollaborator with all the people
I've worked with.
It's been a great ride, really,you know.
From Rob Younger from RadioBirdman to independent stars
like Joel Silbisher from God andLewis Tillett from Sydney,

(02:47):
Chrissy Amplett to Paul Cowley,Tex Perkins, Don Walker.
I did a stint with Jimmy Barnesa few years ago.
It's all been great fun.
Wonderful people, actually, Imust say.
All of them.

Cheryl Lee (02:57):
We've seen you up on the stage many a time with all
of those people that you said.
But being a good SouthAustralian girl, music fan, you
have to be a Cole Chisel andJimmy Barnes fan.
So it came to my attention thefirst time, I reckon, with
Text Don and Charlie, DonWalker, of course, being

(03:17):
Australia's greatest songwriter.

Charlie Owen (03:19):
Well, there's Paul too.

Cheryl Lee (03:20):
Paul Kelly.
Yeah, but it's not much in it,is there?

Charlie Owen (03:23):
No, they're both fantastic.
Yeah, Don and I met many, many,many years ago, long before
Texton and Charlie.
I was playing with um LewisTillard in Sydney, and we used
to play this place from 12 till4 in the morning.
Don lived down the road, and heused to come up and sort of
watch this band called ParisGreen.
That's how I got to meet Don.
He uh was doing a tour, one ofhis first solo tours, and said,

(03:48):
Would I like to play guitar?
And we became fast friends, andthen I played on a record for
him and did a couple of tours,and then when the idea of Tex
and Don playing together forTriple J's Unplugged series, Tex
and I had met over in Oslo whenI was playing with the New
Christs, and he was in theBeasts of Bourbon, and we did a
double headliner for two nights,and that's when I first met

(04:09):
Tex.
And Tex goes, Oh, Don, okay,well, I'll do this if we get
Charlie along as well, becausehe knew I'd been playing with
Don.
And that's how it all started,really.
You know, a singer, asongwriter, and a musician.

Cheryl Lee (04:21):
And you just became his fabulous boy band.

Charlie Owen (04:24):
Yes.
Well, there's a couple of girlsin there.

Cheryl Lee (04:27):
You have been a producer as well.
Producer The Plunderers, LouisTillett, Tex Perkins, Pelle.

Charlie Owen (04:34):
Eikinger.

Cheryl Lee (04:35):
Eikinger, yeah.
Bit of a session player withsome people.
The cruel Sea, Tex Perkins, ofcourse, and another one of our
South Australian favorites,Steve Prestwich, the dearly
missed Steve Prestwich.

Charlie Owen (04:48):
Yes, yeah.
Well, Steve, that came aboutbecause Don really loved a band
I was in called The WorkingClass Ringos, Morris Frolling
and the Working Class Ringos.
Don talked uh Chisel intogiving us the support slot at
the tennis centre in Melbourne.
Now, you've got to remember theworking class ringos, sort of
like double bass, dobros, theshuffle, snare drum, and piano.

(05:09):
It was a pretty hokey sort ofbluegrass folk outfit.
And here we are playing infront of like 20,000 people,
people jeering us.
And but Maurice Crawley wassuch a great songwriter.
We decided to do this reallytragic, heartbreaking song as
the last song.
It's called Let Nobody Be YourDaddy When I'm Gone.
And I swear we got the wholeplace silent, almost tearful.

(05:32):
And the guys from Chisel werestanding um side of stage.
Normally, it's like cheers all,cheers all at this point.
And we had the whole placesilent.
As we walked off, they werejust shaking their heads, going,
How did you do that?
That was that's how I metSteve.
Steve wanted to do a uh soloalbum, and he got us to be the
band.

Cheryl Lee (05:51):
And also on your um Tool Belt, Another Notch, was
playing on the Divinyls albumand touring that album.

Charlie Owen (05:58):
I um played with the Divinyls from 1989 right
through to the end.
So I was the lot apart fromMark and Chrissy, I was the
longest standing member of thatband.

Cheryl Lee (06:08):
Wow.

Charlie Owen (06:08):
Chrissy and I were great, great friends actually.
She's godmother to my kids.
And we were yeah.

Cheryl Lee (06:15):
Yeah, we miss her as well.

Charlie Owen (06:17):
We do too, very much.

Cheryl Lee (06:19):
Yeah.
This is a bit of a feather inyour cap 2012, Australian Guitar
Magazine listed in the top 40of all time Australia's best
guitarists.
Congratulations.

Charlie Owen (06:30):
Yeah.
Well, I don't know about this,but a nice bit of recognition.
There's a few things thathappened, you know, through your
career and that you sort ofmiss, and then every now and
then people bring it up.
Like uh Lewis Tillett and Imade a record, just the two of
us, back in 1996, Midnight Rain,with the wonderful producer
Tony Cohen.
Both Lewis and Tony Cohen havepassed away now, but and it got

(06:52):
voted Rolling Stone Criticsnumber one album of the year in
Rolling Stone.
Wow.
I never knew about that untilabout a year ago when someone
brought it up to me.
I thought, oh, really?

unknown (07:02):
Wow.

Cheryl Lee (07:03):
Awesome.
The listeners might like toknow is what they can expect
from the two shows here in thisbeautiful town this coming
weekend.

Charlie Owen (07:11):
I run through my catalogue of all the people I've
collaborated with.
It sort of started when theyall started to pass away,
actually.
And it was a bit sad.
And then I thought, this ismore of a celebration of these
people.
So I got through my career anddo songs that I've written with
Lewis, with Tex, with all sortsof people, living and passed
away, and tell the stories ofhow the songs came to be, you

(07:34):
know, some anecdotes andheartfelt moments and some funny
moments.
And some through my career, Imainly wanted to focus on the
music because that's how it gotinto playing music.
And I never really sang much.
But then, particularly whenLewis passed away, and Morris
from the Ringos that I'd done alot of writing with too, thought
some of these songs may neverget played again.

(07:55):
So I thought, Gobert, I'm gonnasing.
I've loved it.
And Don always used to say tome, Charlie, you should sing,
you know.
And I thought, no, I just wantto play guitar.
But now I thought, actually, Iwant to tell these stories, and
if I'm gonna tell the stories, Imay as well sing them.
It's a rollicking fun ride.

Cheryl Lee (08:12):
Who's on stage with you?

Charlie Owen (08:13):
There's a dobro, an electric guitar, an acoustic
guitar, a synthesizer, akeyboard, no looping pedals, no
sampler.
My wife Kylie will play alittle bit of keyboards, but
she's only allowed to use onefinger at a time.
And I might get Max up to playwith me a little bit, but it
basically it's a solo show.
Lots of instruments and lots ofmy guitar playing over the

(08:34):
years.

Cheryl Lee (08:34):
What's your favorite song to play at the moment?
Or is that like asking you tochoose between your children?

Charlie Owen (08:40):
What's my favorite song to play at the moment?
A song written by Spencer P.
Jones called The New Day of theDead, which is off with the
Beast Suburban album LittleAnimals.
It's a very prophetic song.
And he passed away before allthis political mayhem around the
world, but somehow this songtouches on it.
And that's how songs are areally important part of our

(09:02):
world, how prophetic they areand how they can mean a lot to a
lot of people.

Cheryl Lee (09:06):
Being one of your favourites or be your favourite,
you'll be playing that for asong.

Charlie Owen (09:10):
I will.
The other one I really love toplay is, of course, I Won't Do
to You What I Done, which wasthe first song off the text on
Charlie album, a first single.
When I bought my Dobro, thefirst lick I ever played on it,
sitting in the shop, was theopening lick for this song.
Oh, I better buy this guitar.
I played this one and it uhended up on a movie called

(09:32):
Australian Rules, which a goodfriend of ours, Mick Harvey, did
the music for, and it ended upon that movie Australian Rules,
which is a tremendous movie.

Cheryl Lee (09:40):
Can I put in a request?

Charlie Owen (09:41):
Uh you can.

Cheryl Lee (09:42):
I love Cold Grey Saturday.

Charlie Owen (09:44):
Sitting in a bar.

Cheryl Lee (09:45):
Yeah, sitting in a bar.

Charlie Owen (09:47):
Well, that one would be pretty hard to do
because the bass player fromTextona Charlie, Shane Walsh,
passed away one Friday night anduh Tex Don & Charlie played
that at his funeral.

Cheryl Lee (09:58):
Oh.

Charlie Owen (10:01):
And I don't think I'd be able to do that without
falling apart.

Cheryl Lee (10:05):
I love that song, and it's gonna have an extra
meaning for me now.

Charlie Owen (10:08):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, when we were playing it,uh the Sacred Heart mission in
Sir Kilda, it was very tough.

Cheryl Lee (10:15):
Yeah, I bet.
Like you say, music is sopersonal, it touches you right
down inside, doesn't it?

Charlie Owen (10:21):
Yeah, indeed.

Cheryl Lee (10:22):
Or I'll let you off.

Charlie Owen (10:23):
All right, Cheryl.
Well, really, really nice totalk to you.

Cheryl Lee (10:27):
Thank you so much.
I'm looking forward to askingyou all my other questions on
the tally when we get togetherto shoot our legend series
interview.
Have a great day.

Charlie Owen (10:38):
Just to let everybody know, they're early
shows.

Cheryl Lee (10:41):
Good point.
5 30 at Port Elliot in theJoinery Wine Room.
We South Australians love ourwine.
Four o'clock.

Charlie Owen (10:49):
So I think the the Wheat Chief, I think doors are
at 2 or something like that,2.30 or something.
But yeah, I'll be on aboutfour.

Cheryl Lee (10:56):
Tickets are available from Charlie's
website, www.charlieOwen.au orprobably in the door.
Looking forward to it.
Looking forward to theadvanced.
Yeah, me too.

Charlie Owen (11:06):
I can't wait.
I love coming to Adelaide.
I mean, I've been coming herefor many years.
And if you go to the Gov, whichI've played there many, many,
many times, and for years andyears there's been a photo above
the bar amongst Miles Davis,Charlie Mingus, Paul Kelly, and
there's a photo of someone withlong hair playing the Dobro
above the bar.
It's a blue photograph, andthat's me and before the Gov got

(11:29):
renovated playing there.

Cheryl Lee (11:30):
Well, you've really made it if you've got your photo
on the wall at the Gov.

Charlie Owen (11:34):
Exactly.

Cheryl Lee (11:35):
Thank you for all of the music over all of the
years.
And it's not over yet.

Charlie Owen (11:39):
No, indeed not.
I look forward to seeingeverybody on the weekend.

Cheryl Lee (11:42):
Bye for now, Charlie.

Charlie Owen (11:44):
Thank you.
See you then.

Cheryl Lee (11:45):
Bye.
You're with Cheryl Lee, thatradio chick.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the Still Rocking It
podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can, supportAussie music, and I'll see you
down the front.