Lee Kernaghan is Australia’s most loved country music identity and an outback icon. He reinvigorated Australian Country Music in the 1990’s, synthesising traditional country themes with his own brand of rural rock and images of an evolving regional culture.
Songs like The Outback Club, Boys From The Bush, Hat Town, She’s My Ute and Australian Boy are now modern day anthems for a generation of Australian’s living and working on the land.
2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Lee’s classic debut album The Outback Club. To celebrate this incredible milestone with his fans Lee released a special 3-CD, 62 song set that documents three decades of dedication to his craft – a decade per CD – a journey which has ensured Lee remains one of the biggest names in Australian country music.
Curated by Lee himself, “The Very Best of Lee Kernaghan – Three Decades of Hits”, was released on January 14, 2022.
Then on the 15th of April, 2022, which was also Lee’s birthday, ABC Music released Lee’s first ever Live album – “Lee Kernaghan Live At The Deni Ute Muster”. This epic sounding 20 song live set is a fitting marker for Lee’s Anniversary year and it showcases why Lee’s live show is one of the most exciting in the country. For this performance Lee’s damned good mates The Wolfe Brothers – Nick and Tom, along with Brodie Rainbird and Casey Kostiuk plus Lee’s wife Robby X all contribute to this amazing performance that captures Lee at his best, rockin’ the 20,000 strong Deni Ute Muster crowd.
With 13 Studio albums and 3 Greatest Hits packages under his belt, Lee has sold over two and a half million albums in Australia from his amazing catalogue: The Outback Club, Three Chain Road, 1959, Hat Town, Rules Of The Road, The Big Ones, Electric Rodeo, The New Bush, Ultimate Hits, Spirit Of The Bush, Planet Country, Beautiful Noise, Spirit Of The Anzacs, 25th Anniversary Album and Backroad Nation all achieving gold, platinum or multi-platinum status. Lee is a four-time ARIA award winning artist and in 2015 he was presented with the Australian Record Industry Award for Outstanding Achievement based on the success of Spirit Of The Anzacs which was the highest selling Australian album of the year – a feat no other country artist has achieved. In 2017 Lee was named alongside the all-time greats of Australian Country Music with his inclusion into the Australian Country Music Roll Of Renown for his lasting and significant contribution to country music, and in 2018 he was inducted into the CMC Hall of Fame. Lee also received the CMC/ARIA Award for Highest Selling Australian Album of 2018 for his 25th Anniversary Album.
Another milestone event for this Anniversary year was the release of a concert based documentary film written and directed by Kriv Stenders who also directed the Go Betweens and Slim & I docos. Kriv was also the director of the two Red Dog movies and numerous other Australian productions.
The movie is called “Lee Kernaghan – Boy From The Bush”. The director takes the audience on a journey through Lee’s career that also features a full live concert along with visual stories about the songs, the people and places that inspired those songs.
Lee is a long-time passionate supporter of rural and regional Australia. His Pass The Hat Around Australia Tours, Spirit of the Bush Tour and Farmhand concert have raised millions of dollars for drought, flood and bushfire relief, hospitals, schools, ambulance and volunteer organisations nation-wide. In 2004 Lee was the recipient of an Order of Australia Medal and was named the 2008 Australian of the Year for his service outback and regional communities.
Lee has achieved a staggering 40 #1 chart hit songs over his career and has been awarded 38 Golden Guitars. He has been named Hit Maker of the Decade twice, in 2001 and 2011. This accolade is in recognition of Lee having more chart hits in Australia than any other country music artist in the world.
In September 2022 Lee released the first single from his next studio album that will be released in mid 2023. This very special song of unity is called Come Together and features the incredible vocal talents of First Nation artists Isaiah Firebrace and Mitch Tambo. Come Together was written by Lee, Isaiah, Mitch, Nick Wolfe, Colin Buchanan and Garth Porter.
