Interview: Craig McLachlan on his intimate live show Six String Stories, career reflections, and being saved by music
This article was originally published on The AU Review, 15 July 2025.
Get ready for a night to remember as Australian industry legend Craig McLachlan brings his unique & exciting Live & Intimate stage show to theatre’s and venues across Australia: Six String Stories.
Having entertained audiences the world over for almost 40 years, McLachlan is one of Australia’s most beloved, versatile, and resilient performers. From the days on Ramsay Street and the chart success that was “Mona (I Need You Baby)” to his renowned television work in The Doctor Blake Mysteries, via his theatre work in Grease, Chicago and, perhaps most notably, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, he’s a staple of Australian culture, and alongside his snare smackin’ mate Dave, he’s taking audiences on a strange musical journey that encompasses his career, the successes and the tribulations.
As he prepares to take the show across Australia, McLachlan spoke with our own Peter Gray, diving into his unique relationship with music, how he constantly surprises himself when putting together the show’s setlist, how music personally saved him, and what song does he personally wish he wrote.
I have to say, as an 80s baby and a 90s kid, I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t get to speak to Craig McLachlan.
God bless you, Peter. I knew I loved the moment I saw you (laughs). I was chatting to a girlfriend of mine last night, she’s an English gal who I have worked with a lot over there on various shows. She was born in 1971 or 72, I’m a little bit older than her, but we were chatting last night about the change in popular music in the late 70s, going from all things kind of rock…to me, it only seems like yesterday, but of course, it isn’t. It’s decades ago! But can I ask you what artists you were loving in the 90s?
Well, I’m a gay man, I loved my pop music, still do, so the 90s to me was about the boy bands and the girl groups. But then, as well, my mum took me to a lot of live theatre, like Jesus Christ Superstar, and Grease, and Phantom of the Opera. All that sort of stuff.
Oh, don’t even get me started on that! I’m guessing your dear mum is still with us?
She is still with us, indeed. She’ll be happy to know that I’m talking to Craig McLachlan.
Tell her I love her. But, you know, the whole boy band thing…I was living in London throughout just about all of the 90s, so I was there for the arrival of Take That and Spice Girls, and so on and so on. I started guitar lessons, can you believe it, at about 8-years-old. And for me, being born in 19865 and having a brother who’s 8-and-a-half years older than me, I was being exposed to Hendrix and all that 60s and 70s stuff. I was very much a rock guy. But there was that influence in the 70s artists when disco erupted.
Even though I was obsessed with stuff from the 60s and 70s, the stuff from my brother’s record collection, when I heard (disco), and some of my hard rock contemporaries will kill me for saying this, but the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, ABBA…young, curly-haired Craig, who was all about rock, was delighting in hearing pop melodies and pop harmonies. And no auto tune and pitch correction back then! So, when you go through the 80s, and we’ve got the new romantic stuff….Culture Club, Duran Duran, and so on, getting us into the 90s with the boy band thing, as you can imagine in the UK, it was insane! It was like the second coming.
But showbiz and big media being what it is, even then, it didn’t take long for them to sort of turn on the whole boy band thing. I don’t have to tell you about pop culture, but it’s cyclical. So, the 80s we saw a revival in heavy metal, although it was with a little more makeup (laughs), and, for me, the boy bands were just harking back to those great doo-wop bands of the 50s and 60s. I love that stuff. I’m not a gay man, but all my gay friends tell me I should have been (laughs).
When the whole “Mona” mania thing happened for me, we were a rock band playing pubs, and the influence of all those hard rock, late 60s, early 70s (music) was very much there. I’d love to send you some MP3’s of the recordings that fans made in the pubs. When I signed to the record company, I was residing in “that street”, that famous street where my kid sister went on to become the pop princess, and her boyfriend at the time went on to also sign with Stock Aitken Waterman, and they did their thing. When we were playing in the pubs around Melbourne, record companies came sniffing around, and to be totally honest with you, Peter, a legendary figure approached us after a gig and offered us a very, very sweet deal as a band. I was under no illusions. We were pretty good players, but we weren’t necessarily fashionable, in terms of what was starting to really happen in terms of pop music, so I said “No” to the record deal. I said “No” to a couple, until someone from what was CBS Records at the time, made a deal that was too good to refuse. But the proviso was this, I was adamant that if I’m going to do this (deal), it has to be the band. I can’t just be another Kylie or Jason, with respect to them.
I knew I would be just destroyed with the first (single) release, so they told me I could have my band, but that I had to make my rock band more of a pop/rock band. I was naive and didn’t really know how to do that, so I brought on a producer. His name was Garth Porter. You mum will be old enough to remember (the rock band) Sherbet with Daryl Braithwaite. So (Garth) came in, took the songs, and I don’t want to say he just softened them up and made them more palatable, (but) at the end of the day, we had a huge pop album. I think it was four Top 40 singles off it? And, irrespective of the popularity of (Neighbours) at the time, they probably wouldn’t have done as well if we had been left to our own devices. I’m waffling already, Peter, but I just love talking about music with people who have periods like the 80s and 90s, and it still resonates today.
Well, it all plays into this show of yours, Six String Stories, where it’s all about your career and everything that goes with that. Is it one of those things, for you, as you tell the stories out loud, you find yourself surprised at what you remember each time they’re being retold?
Everything about the show is exactly that! It’s a good thing my offsider, Dave, isn’t here. He’s a brilliant drummer and percussionist, and we’ve known each other for too many years, and it’s like any sort of band or duo, you write a set list and you work out when you can give the audience a break. We’ll do these songs first, then give everyone a breath, and Dave would tell you that it’s a very casual kind of night. Very relaxed. But here’s a word that all the hipsters like using, but this show did really come together quite organically. I only ever used that word when I was looking for vegetables (laughs), but it happened very organically, whereby I had been invited to play a couple of intimate acoustic shows, and I invited Dave to come and sit in on one of these shows. It’s stripped right back. And after Dave played one of these gigs with me, he said that it was something we should do more of.
He told me it reminded him of the Elvis 1968 comeback (show). I wasn’t wearing a black leather suit (laughs), and he really is unspeakably handsome in that show, but Dave was saying his favourite part of that show was when Elvis sits down with his old musician buddies from Memphis. He just thought we really needed to keep it stripped back, and he was right. And we don’t see this sort of show anymore. We got to keep it raw and real, and that storytelling elements, to get back to your original question, the stories really do take me off. I can’t stick to a setlist, because it only feels like yesterday that Madge first opened her door on her son in Neighbours, but it was really 40 years ago! It doesn’t feel like that, so during Six String Stories, there are people who have been with me every step of the way. Through all the peaks and valleys, this revolving door. Even when I moved overseas and did the reboot of Grease on the West End in 1993, it was a big deal! I was meant to do the first nine months, and then do a movie in New Zealand, but I ended up living in the UK solidly for 12 years or so. I did TV for the BBC and all sorts, but when I came back to Australia, you guys are still here. God bless you.
You share this bizarre journey with so many people. The good, the bad, the ugly, the highs, the lows…and what I have found in doing these intimate shows with Dave, is that the audience are as much a part of the show as the instruments. Someone might call out something based on a story I’ve just told that takes me down here, and then Dave, who I have known since we were kids, he’ll comment that he didn’t know that (story). So, yeah, it’s a surprise to me, each and every night.
With everything that you’ve been through, when you look back, is there a moment in your career where you felt like music saved you? Or changed the path you were on? I feel like people turn to music when their back is against the wall. I know when I have experienced hardships, you turn to such things as music or movies as that comfort. Was there a moment where you were grateful you had music?
That’s a really, really good question. Apart from being devilishly handsome, that’s another reason why you’re so good at doing what you do. That’s a really good question. Yes. Yes, is the short answer. Whatever awful thing you went through, I’m sorry you had to go through that. But when you do, and without going into it, and it’s at the hands of people who expertly lead me to believe they were my friends…your life is completely, thoroughly, utterly demolished. My partner, Vanessa, and I, we still have text messages, loving messages, “Can’t wait to see you,” blah, blah. It doesn’t get much more tough than that. I was saying that if I had been diagnosed with some sort of physical condition, at least fighting is fair. And what I mean is it’s not ever fair getting a shitty diagnosis, but you get your positive thinking vibes into gear. You can keep yourself fit. You fight. When you’ve been hijacked, ambushed, call it what you will, by people who are sending these lovely messages and you were working with them only weeks before they came out and said that you were this awful person to work with…it’s a whole different kind of fight you have on your hands.
Add big media into the mix, and the thought of completely destroying Australia’s golden-haired boy. I mean, there’s no better click bait than that. So, that’s about as dark as I experienced. I used to joke and say that I’ve had such a happy, wonderful life. I had all the usual things happen. Relationships and breakups of all kinds. And for those of you who haven’t had a breakup and you’re still happy? God bless you. What’s that like? But, in show business, I’ve had managers rip me off. In fact, professionally in the UK, a trusted agent just ran off with all my money. I remember going into a bank in the UK, and talking to the teller about how I only have four pounds and 71 cents to my name. I knew it should have been considerably more. My agent had run off with it. I never saw that money again. But, at that time, I was young and you still believe in good, and you believe that you have the energy and the desire. It was shitty and it hurts, and I trusted that woman for years, but I’ve also got my reputation and I know people like working with me. In this instance, my reputation was completely obliterated!
It was actually the crew from film and theatre that stayed in contact with me throughout the whole ordeal. (But) once your reputation is destroyed, and you’re a bit older, it’s difficult to reconcile with people who are texting you that they love you and they can’t wait to work with you again. Such duplicitous opportunists, shall we say? It’s hard to reconcile with someone saying you’re a pervert and a bully. (But going back to your question) I remember having a conversation with this agent of mine, and we’d been so close for so many years, and I rang her up and just asked her what she was thinking? I wasn’t aggressive or “You did this!”, and she just said that she couldn’t (talk) right now, couldn’t speak to me, and she hung up. But she didn’t hang it up, and I heard her husband in the background, and he picks up the phone and asks who it is. He didn’t want to talk about it (either), and then he starts telling me how it isn’t a good time and that he has to sell the house in France, and the boat, and the Bentley, and the apartment in Tenerife…he’s cataloging. Look, I’m laughing about it today, but I had to stop him and say, “I think you’ll find that you’re selling my Bentley, and my little flat in Tenerife.”
Anyway, he hung up and that was it. But whenever the universe decides to take one on you, it’s never a little one, is it? I remember having a few months off at this time. I was on a hiatus from a TV series I was doing, and I thought I’d have a few months off to catch my breath before the next season. Of course, I had to take a job immediately because I have to eat, I have to put petrol in the car…I had no money to. So, I drive to my little house, and it isn’t this sprawling mansions like the documentaries you see. It’s this tiny stone cottage in the middle of these fields. I loved it. But I was on the phone with liquidators, and they’re telling me that once certain debts are paid, it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever see my money again. It was cold, I wanted to sleep, and the wood that I had had delivered for the house was delivered, but it wasn’t put in the shed, so it’s damp. The gas heating? Run out. I just remember thinking, “Seriously?” You know, I’ve got a sense of humour, but this ain’t on! So, I went upstairs and started writing on the guitar.
“You can take my money. You can take my car. You can take every little thing. But you can’t take my heart.”
It was just a happy little song on the guitar. And I sat up playing until the sun came up in the depths of this unimaginable nightmare. I found through the guitar that you can compose something that has the most powerful, emotive lyrics. I’ve been creative all my life. I needed to be creative to get through that. When your confidence has been crushed and you’re too afraid to walk out the front door. Pick up your guitar. It’s always been there in a lot of ways. It’s always been my best friend. Music, it’s therapy. It’s solace. It was being able to get stuff out through composition. It’s a long winded answer to your question (laughs).
Hearing that story, it’s all quite hitting me on a personal, relatable level with some of the things I experienced. So, as I said, I understand that escapism with music and finding solace in that. But it made me think in the mentioning of your records, and this question has nothing to do with the popularity of a song, or the royalties that could come from it, but is there a song for you that you think, “God, I wish I could have written that?” Just because of what it means to you, or to people in general?
“Do you really want to hurt me”…too soon for that joke? Oh, gee, there are so many. And it’s nothing to do with that royalty check, and I was listening to this with my beautiful partner, Vanessa, a couple of days ago. I dropped the needle on “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees. We were both listening to it, and neither of us said anything. Davy Jones, and that beautiful English (inflection). Once we finish chatting, I urge you to listen to it. It’s this perfect little slice of pop. Some of my hard rocking, metal friends won’t let me hear the end of this. They would tell me to say “Enter Sandman”, or something. And I would happily write that, but “Daydream Believer”, looking at my life, I was kind of a daydream believer. I believed that good things can happen in life. So that’s the one that springs to mind, and only because it’s fresh in my mind from hearing it a couple of days ago.
Craig McLachlan: Live & Intimate – Six String Stories will be playing across the following dates and locations from Wednesday, July 16th, through to Sunday, 17th August.
JULY/AUGUST 2025 TOUR DATES
Wednesday 16th July, 2025 – REDCLIFFE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, QLD – Bookings: (07) 3480 6280
Friday 18th July, 2025 – THE ARMITAGE CENTRE, TOOWOOMBA QLD – Bookings: 1300 655 299
Saturday 19th July, 2025 –THE EVENTS CENTRE, CALOUNDRA, QLD- Bookings: (07) 5491 4240
Friday 25th July, 2025 – AVOCA BEACH THEATRE, NSW Bookings: (02) 4382 1777
Friday 15th August, 2025 – THE ESTATE, CAMDEN NSW- Bookings: Mobile 0488 358 168
Saturday 16th August, 2025 – BALLARAT MECHANICS INSTITUTE, MINERVA ROOM, VIC – Bookings: here
Sunday 17th August, 2025 – FRANKSTON ARTS CENTRE, VIC- Bookings: (03) 9784 1060
This article was originally published on The AU Review, 15 July 2025.
