April 3, 2025 • 12 mins
Wilson Dixon chats to Subculture about his new Melbourne International Comedy Festival show.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, listeners, we have got a very very special guest
on the program and now as part of this year's
Melbourne International Comedy Festival, we have got a country music
legend appearing at the festival this year, Wilson Dixon, who,
of course many of you will know, is the best
country music singer to ever come out of Cripple Creek
in Colorado. He is now joining us on the show
(00:24):
to chat a little bit about what you can expect
to hear from him at this year's Comedy Festival. Welcome
to the program, Wilson.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thanks Dave, Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So Wilson, tell us a little bit about you coming
out here to Melbourne for these shows. Is this your
first visit to Australia and if so, how excited are
you about this tour.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Look, it's not the first time I've been out here
like that fifteen years ago and so back before the
world was falling apart. I guess, you know, I suppose
it's like the beforetime after time. So now I'm here,
I am excited. I'm excited that I'm not in America
right now, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So we're hearing that America is a little bit of
a mess at the moment. Tell us, yeah, in your
own words, what is it like there at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, it's kind of we don't really know. It's kind
of like, you know, if you've ever had a parent
that like maybe just one day leaves and then you
find out that they're burnt down a house and that
they killed a person, it's kind of and like that
person is meant to be like looking at looking after you,
you know. And it's a little bit like that. I
(01:41):
guess with the government, they're meant to be kind of
looking after us that it's like they're having a party
and destroying the house. It's a little bit like you
know what I mean, It's like suddenly all the adults
in the room are drinking and you know, setting things
on fire, and kind of feels a little bit like
that actually.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I understand that that comes very close to home
for you as well, because you've got some very kind
of alternative right leaning members of your own family.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I do, yeah, I do, just well, one particular, like
my brother Jethrow, he kind of went down the rabbit hole,
and that we're around around the conspiracy theories and things
like that, and so he's kind of lost to us
in a way, because it's very hard to have the
conversation with someone about, like, you know, something as simple
(02:35):
as like having a barbecue and you know, like just
going to get some food for it when he thinks
that the earth is flat, you know what I mean,
Like it really impacts on your day to day dealings
with someone who is kind of thinks that, you know,
very strange.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, And you're a very honest man. You're a very
open man. You talk online, You talk online a lot
about the things that have been happening in your life.
And you have been problems with your ex wife, You've
got an angry force. How do you put all of
that into into music? Do you find that a cathodic
thing to do to put all of that stuff into music?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah? I think so. I mean, I think any artist
is going to write about their lives, you know, and
particularly with country music, you know, it's it's an art
form that is an afraid of tragedy and pain and
singing about those things that thing's not working out and
you know, lovers leaving and you know what I mean,
(03:38):
they do call it the white man's blues. You know
country music, and that's there's a reason for that, which is,
you know, there's lots of sadness in there, and you
try and celebrate that sadness and turn those stories into
something that you know the audience might shet a tear
when they hear it. That ultimately, it's through that process
(04:00):
of that emotional process that you may be trumped to
terms with things a little bit more now.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So well, so let's go right back to your early
days in Cripple Creek. Tell us a little bit. When
when did you fall in love with country music and
when did you know and realize that you've got such
a talent as a musician.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, when I was a kid, like you know, I
didn't I didn't realize there was you know, I'm a
country singer, but I was just as far as I
was concerned, I was just kind of in the in
the country playing music. I didn't realize the country musician,
if you know what I mean. And it wasn't until
later that I found out that there were other kinds
(04:41):
of music, because when I was a kid, I just
thought that was it, you know, because all of the
music around me was country music, and I was in
the country and so it seemed normal and just totally
you know, I didn't question it at all and then
and it was only later that I went to like
the city, and I realized that is like city music,
(05:01):
you know, all of those city musics that they had,
like urban wider metropolitan area music, you know, of all
that sort of stuff. And the first, I guess the
first thing musically was my grandma, old my rough scrugger,
and she's an old Dutch lady, and she used to
play the fiddle when we were growing up. You know,
(05:21):
would go around to her house and she would be
playing the fiddle and singing old folk songs. And that
I think was the first time that I really heard music,
you know, in the flash with our little kid. I'd
fit up on her knee, you know, and she'd play
the fiddle. And I'm getting away a bit being on
a knee and her playing trying to play the violin,
and you know, Bode sometimes hit me in the eye
(05:43):
and things, but but you know, it's still they it was.
I didn't mind that, you know, it was a creative
process and I felt like I was part of it,
even though I was bleeding a little bit, you know what,
I mean like you got to you got to bleed
for your art, and I did bleed for her, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Wilson, Yeah, you mentioned city music there in urban music
as well. We've seen a lot of country artists over
the last few years team up with some of those
city artists. Is that something that you have aspired to
as well? I may be teaming up with eminem or
jay Z at some point.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well maybe, I mean to be honest, I would doubt that,
just because those guys they do the rap music. And
to me, like Beyonce, she did a country album and
I'm doing little I'm doing little quotation marks when I
(06:41):
say country album. You can't see that on the radio,
but I'm doing that right now. And I mean, I
think there's one thing to like maybe for a cowboy
head on and do it hip hop kind of country song,
and there's another one to actually need to wear a
cowboy hat because you're out working and you don't want
to get some burn, you know what I mean. Like, yeah,
(07:02):
I guess that's the difference. And like you know, I've
got as you're saying, like I've got a horse and
every one, and I've got animals and I actually live
in the country on a ranch, and I don't think
you can replace that experience with living in a you know,
a flash place in the city. And then just maybe
(07:23):
you know what I mean, I think again, like you
got to write what you know and and I don't
really know that beyoncey knows anything about what it's like
to have cowshit under your fingernails. And you know, I
don't want to get into why you might have cowshit
underneath your fingernails. They don't think that's necessary thing that
you need to discuss with anyone. That just happens when
(07:46):
you're out there. You might fall over, you're not needed,
help a cow out, and you might get some cowshit
under your thing. Don't Again, I don't really want to
go into it. But but you know what I mean,
I don't think Beyonce has ever had capture underneath a fingernails.
And so I guess if I was to do it
(08:07):
some kind of collab I believe you call him, I'd
want to do it with someone that really understood where
I was coming from.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Guess So who would your perfect COLI be with?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Well, maybe someone like Billy Ray Cyrus, I suppose, because
he's a man who you know, he's kind of he's done.
He did that song, was that call that one the
Old Town Road or something where he worked with and
with that young rapper singer person. Do you remember that? Yeah,
(08:44):
And so I think that not that he's he obviously
isn't that he is the country part of that. But
I think I'd quite like to work with Billy Ray,
just because I do respect a man who, for a
long time in his life had two haircuts at the
same time, you know, I mean, and I respect that.
I respect the man that can, you know, have those
(09:05):
two haircuts, and and I guess maybe it's that shows
in him in decision and the inability to commit to
one style, but at the same time, like it shows
that he can have one foot in one thing and
one foot in the other. And I think it might
be interesting to.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Work with that. Definitely. Well, Wilson, we have a we
have a very very big country music scene here in Australia.
Of course, mister Urban being our king of country, what
have you got in store for our Australian country music
fans with your show at the Comedy Festival this year?
What kind of setlist are we looking at?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
We're looking at well, I should say before we start,
like Keith Urban. It is a It is a strange
name for a man that's a country singer to be
called Keith Urban. Yeah, And I guess that's part of
the kind of the complexity of him as a human being,
I suppose. But my show Willie's songs about uh, songs
(10:05):
about Uncle Klaytus, who he's a great old guy. He's
one of my favorite uncles and the way he sees
the world. And his song about my brother Jethrow about
him fighting with his wife. And there's a song about
my ex wife who lives the next door. She writ
she written, it's a complex story. But she ran away
(10:26):
with another man and that man happened to be our neighbor,
and she's still still living there and through the hedge.
There was a hole in the hedge and she just
went through that one day and didn't come back. And
so this song about her her making love to Dwayne
and then I can hear it and when they make love,
and I mean, that's sad and also in some ways
(10:51):
kind of interesting. I suppose now that I listened out
for it, that I can't avoid it, you know, being
next door and there's a song about animals, and there's
just some general songs I suppose about you know, trying
to figure out what this life is about and how
you get through the way we communicate with each other
(11:11):
and things like that.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Again, definitely, Now for all of our listeners out there,
if you do want to head along and check out
Wilson Dixon at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, He's on
stage from April first to April the sixth at the
Chinese Museum Silk Room, and we'll have all those details
and ticket links up on our website, or you can
simply go to the Comedy Festival website and just search
(11:36):
for Wilson Dixon. But Wilson, to finish off, what would
you like to say to our listeners out there who
are thinking about heading along and checking you out at
the festival this year, I.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Would say that it would be money well spent. I
think it would be illuminating and I think you get
some insight into me, my life and what's kind of
happening a little bit in America right now, and so
that's been any way interesting, come along. If none of
that's interesting to you, definitely don't come. I do not
(12:09):
want anyone in there, it doesn't want to be there,
you know what I mean, Like, just don't come. You
don't have to You don't have to come. You can
just stay at her home, yep, have your own dinner,
you know. Definitely no pressure, I guess that's what I'm saying.
There's no pressure for anyone to come to it.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Definitely. Well there you go, listeners. If you want to
head a long and check out Wilson Dixon in Love
don't live here anymore, you do, come along and check
him out at the Chinese Museum Silk Room, running from
April first to April the sixth, and all that ticket
information is up on our website and also the Comedy
Festival website
Well, listeners, we have got a very very special guest
on the program and now as part of this year's
Melbourne International Comedy Festival, we have got a country music
legend appearing at the festival this year, Wilson Dixon, who,
of course many of you will know, is the best
country music singer to ever come out of Cripple Creek
in Colorado. He is now joining us on the show
(00:24):
to chat a little bit about what you can expect
to hear from him at this year's Comedy Festival. Welcome
to the program, Wilson.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thanks Dave, Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So Wilson, tell us a little bit about you coming
out here to Melbourne for these shows. Is this your
first visit to Australia and if so, how excited are
you about this tour.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Look, it's not the first time I've been out here
like that fifteen years ago and so back before the
world was falling apart. I guess, you know, I suppose
it's like the beforetime after time. So now I'm here,
I am excited. I'm excited that I'm not in America
right now, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So we're hearing that America is a little bit of
a mess at the moment. Tell us, yeah, in your
own words, what is it like there at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, it's kind of we don't really know. It's kind
of like, you know, if you've ever had a parent
that like maybe just one day leaves and then you
find out that they're burnt down a house and that
they killed a person, it's kind of and like that
person is meant to be like looking at looking after you,
you know. And it's a little bit like that. I
(01:41):
guess with the government, they're meant to be kind of
looking after us that it's like they're having a party
and destroying the house. It's a little bit like you
know what I mean, It's like suddenly all the adults
in the room are drinking and you know, setting things
on fire, and kind of feels a little bit like
that actually.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I understand that that comes very close to home
for you as well, because you've got some very kind
of alternative right leaning members of your own family.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I do, yeah, I do, just well, one particular, like
my brother Jethrow, he kind of went down the rabbit hole,
and that we're around around the conspiracy theories and things
like that, and so he's kind of lost to us
in a way, because it's very hard to have the
conversation with someone about, like, you know, something as simple
(02:35):
as like having a barbecue and you know, like just
going to get some food for it when he thinks
that the earth is flat, you know what I mean,
Like it really impacts on your day to day dealings
with someone who is kind of thinks that, you know,
very strange.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, And you're a very honest man. You're a very
open man. You talk online, You talk online a lot
about the things that have been happening in your life.
And you have been problems with your ex wife, You've
got an angry force. How do you put all of
that into into music? Do you find that a cathodic
thing to do to put all of that stuff into music?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah? I think so. I mean, I think any artist
is going to write about their lives, you know, and
particularly with country music, you know, it's it's an art
form that is an afraid of tragedy and pain and
singing about those things that thing's not working out and
you know, lovers leaving and you know what I mean,
(03:38):
they do call it the white man's blues. You know
country music, and that's there's a reason for that, which is,
you know, there's lots of sadness in there, and you
try and celebrate that sadness and turn those stories into
something that you know the audience might shet a tear
when they hear it. That ultimately, it's through that process
(04:00):
of that emotional process that you may be trumped to
terms with things a little bit more now.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So well, so let's go right back to your early
days in Cripple Creek. Tell us a little bit. When
when did you fall in love with country music and
when did you know and realize that you've got such
a talent as a musician.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, when I was a kid, like you know, I
didn't I didn't realize there was you know, I'm a
country singer, but I was just as far as I
was concerned, I was just kind of in the in
the country playing music. I didn't realize the country musician,
if you know what I mean. And it wasn't until
later that I found out that there were other kinds
(04:41):
of music, because when I was a kid, I just
thought that was it, you know, because all of the
music around me was country music, and I was in
the country and so it seemed normal and just totally
you know, I didn't question it at all and then
and it was only later that I went to like
the city, and I realized that is like city music,
(05:01):
you know, all of those city musics that they had,
like urban wider metropolitan area music, you know, of all
that sort of stuff. And the first, I guess the
first thing musically was my grandma, old my rough scrugger,
and she's an old Dutch lady, and she used to
play the fiddle when we were growing up. You know,
(05:21):
would go around to her house and she would be
playing the fiddle and singing old folk songs. And that
I think was the first time that I really heard music,
you know, in the flash with our little kid. I'd
fit up on her knee, you know, and she'd play
the fiddle. And I'm getting away a bit being on
a knee and her playing trying to play the violin,
and you know, Bode sometimes hit me in the eye
(05:43):
and things, but but you know, it's still they it was.
I didn't mind that, you know, it was a creative
process and I felt like I was part of it,
even though I was bleeding a little bit, you know what,
I mean like you got to you got to bleed
for your art, and I did bleed for her, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Wilson, Yeah, you mentioned city music there in urban music
as well. We've seen a lot of country artists over
the last few years team up with some of those
city artists. Is that something that you have aspired to
as well? I may be teaming up with eminem or
jay Z at some point.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well maybe, I mean to be honest, I would doubt that,
just because those guys they do the rap music. And
to me, like Beyonce, she did a country album and
I'm doing little I'm doing little quotation marks when I
(06:41):
say country album. You can't see that on the radio,
but I'm doing that right now. And I mean, I
think there's one thing to like maybe for a cowboy
head on and do it hip hop kind of country song,
and there's another one to actually need to wear a
cowboy hat because you're out working and you don't want
to get some burn, you know what I mean. Like, yeah,
(07:02):
I guess that's the difference. And like you know, I've
got as you're saying, like I've got a horse and
every one, and I've got animals and I actually live
in the country on a ranch, and I don't think
you can replace that experience with living in a you know,
a flash place in the city. And then just maybe
(07:23):
you know what I mean, I think again, like you
got to write what you know and and I don't
really know that beyoncey knows anything about what it's like
to have cowshit under your fingernails. And you know, I
don't want to get into why you might have cowshit
underneath your fingernails. They don't think that's necessary thing that
you need to discuss with anyone. That just happens when
(07:46):
you're out there. You might fall over, you're not needed,
help a cow out, and you might get some cowshit
under your thing. Don't Again, I don't really want to
go into it. But but you know what I mean,
I don't think Beyonce has ever had capture underneath a fingernails.
And so I guess if I was to do it
(08:07):
some kind of collab I believe you call him, I'd
want to do it with someone that really understood where
I was coming from.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Guess So who would your perfect COLI be with?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Well, maybe someone like Billy Ray Cyrus, I suppose, because
he's a man who you know, he's kind of he's done.
He did that song, was that call that one the
Old Town Road or something where he worked with and
with that young rapper singer person. Do you remember that? Yeah,
(08:44):
And so I think that not that he's he obviously
isn't that he is the country part of that. But
I think I'd quite like to work with Billy Ray,
just because I do respect a man who, for a
long time in his life had two haircuts at the
same time, you know, I mean, and I respect that.
I respect the man that can, you know, have those
(09:05):
two haircuts, and and I guess maybe it's that shows
in him in decision and the inability to commit to
one style, but at the same time, like it shows
that he can have one foot in one thing and
one foot in the other. And I think it might
be interesting to.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Work with that. Definitely. Well, Wilson, we have a we
have a very very big country music scene here in Australia.
Of course, mister Urban being our king of country, what
have you got in store for our Australian country music
fans with your show at the Comedy Festival this year?
What kind of setlist are we looking at?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
We're looking at well, I should say before we start,
like Keith Urban. It is a It is a strange
name for a man that's a country singer to be
called Keith Urban. Yeah, And I guess that's part of
the kind of the complexity of him as a human being,
I suppose. But my show Willie's songs about uh, songs
(10:05):
about Uncle Klaytus, who he's a great old guy. He's
one of my favorite uncles and the way he sees
the world. And his song about my brother Jethrow about
him fighting with his wife. And there's a song about
my ex wife who lives the next door. She writ
she written, it's a complex story. But she ran away
(10:26):
with another man and that man happened to be our neighbor,
and she's still still living there and through the hedge.
There was a hole in the hedge and she just
went through that one day and didn't come back. And
so this song about her her making love to Dwayne
and then I can hear it and when they make love,
and I mean, that's sad and also in some ways
(10:51):
kind of interesting. I suppose now that I listened out
for it, that I can't avoid it, you know, being
next door and there's a song about animals, and there's
just some general songs I suppose about you know, trying
to figure out what this life is about and how
you get through the way we communicate with each other
(11:11):
and things like that.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Again, definitely, Now for all of our listeners out there,
if you do want to head along and check out
Wilson Dixon at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, He's on
stage from April first to April the sixth at the
Chinese Museum Silk Room, and we'll have all those details
and ticket links up on our website, or you can
simply go to the Comedy Festival website and just search
(11:36):
for Wilson Dixon. But Wilson, to finish off, what would
you like to say to our listeners out there who
are thinking about heading along and checking you out at
the festival this year, I.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Would say that it would be money well spent. I
think it would be illuminating and I think you get
some insight into me, my life and what's kind of
happening a little bit in America right now, and so
that's been any way interesting, come along. If none of
that's interesting to you, definitely don't come. I do not
(12:09):
want anyone in there, it doesn't want to be there,
you know what I mean, Like, just don't come. You
don't have to You don't have to come. You can
just stay at her home, yep, have your own dinner,
you know. Definitely no pressure, I guess that's what I'm saying.
There's no pressure for anyone to come to it.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Definitely. Well there you go, listeners. If you want to
head a long and check out Wilson Dixon in Love
don't live here anymore, you do, come along and check
him out at the Chinese Museum Silk Room, running from
April first to April the sixth, and all that ticket
information is up on our website and also the Comedy
Festival website
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