Latest / Rusty's Garage / Jonathan Green Part 1 - Oceania Championship, the NZGP, and how turning down acting led to his broadcasting career

Transcript

Jonathan Green Part 1 - Oceania Championship, the NZGP, and how turning down acting led to his broadcasting career · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:14
I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
0:27
For this episode, I'm in the studio, but after working with him for the last five weeks straight, I really should be sitting down over a beer, face to face with my guest to record this, but he's just about to jet back out to the States.
0:41
Jonathan Green is the voice of the New Zealand Grand Prix and what we affectionately know as the Toyota Racing Series, their hugely successful Formula Regional Championship, which wrapped up just last weekend at Highlands.
0:53
JG has been in that role for over a decade,
0:56
and he gives the coverage a real international flavour.
1:00
This ep won't just appeal to the Kiwis, though.
1:03
Bike fans right around the world will fondly remember him from a huge stint as anchor commentator for the world's superbikes.
1:10
He did that with Steve Martin.
1:13
He's called the Macau Grand Prix for what seemed like
1:16
forever well over two decades so if you're in asia you'll recognize the name and voice jonathan worked in the uk for many years that's where he grew up and jg now does various f1 roles in the states as well as trans am and more jonathan's voice is unmistakable he's animated energetic and he's worked on lots of other sports too as you'll hear not just motor racing but that is where he's made a home yes
1:43
Oh, that's a lap.
1:46
129.176.
1:47
That's almost three-tenths quicker.
1:49
This is the story of a life well-lived, well-travelled certainly, someone with a zest for broadcasting and just generally giving it a go and a real love for motor racing.
1:59
He's the first to laugh at himself for making the nighttime news when he fell into Auckland Harbour while reporting on the supercars drivers who were in town at the time.
2:07
We'll talk about that later.
2:09
And he reminisces about the craziness of getting to call darts.
2:14
snooker.
2:16
Now he was at a colleague's Dave Hedges from Vault Media in Auckland for this chat, sitting outside enjoying the last bit of summer before heading back to the American winter.
2:26
You can hear some cicadas as well.
2:28
JG was just about to jet back out to Texas.
2:33
Hello, Jonathan Green.
2:35
Well, fancy seeing you, Gregory Rust.
2:37
Hey, we have a lot of fun with the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship over summer.
2:44
You've been the voice of that for some time now.
2:46
Take us back to how that introduction started and how long you've been doing it for and so on.
2:52
Well, as with pretty much most of my career, it was a haphazard, a happenstance moment.
3:00
I was late to work at the Macao Grand Prix at, I don't know if you've ever been to Hong Kong or Macab, but getting a cab is not an easy thing to do at 8 in the morning.
3:11
And practice was, I think, 8.45.
3:13
So I was running late and I couldn't get a cab for love and the money.
3:17
So I went to another hotel, um...
3:20
And there I saw Richard Dutton jumping into a cab with another fellow.
3:26
And I know Richard Dutton.
3:27
He was running an F3 team at the time.
3:28
And I said, Oi, can I jump in with you guys?
3:32
And they said, Yeah, of course you can.
3:35
They said, this is my mate Barry from New Zealand.
3:37
And I said, oh, good morning.
3:39
And he goes, hey, nice to meet you.
3:41
Do you fancy a holiday in New Zealand?
3:42
And you're talking about Barry Tomlinson, obviously, and away it went.
3:45
Barry Tomlinson, who ran the Toyota Racing Tour, and away it went.
3:49
No, and then we got down to a serious discussion afterwards, but I said I'd love to come, and that's really where it started.
3:54
It started at the Machado Grand Prix.
3:56
I was doing – I think I did, in the end –
3:59
28, 29 years of the Macau Grand Prix.
4:02
I lived in Hong Kong for six with Star TV.
4:05
But I started, the first winner of the Macau Grand Prix when I did it was Pedro Lamy.
4:11
So that tells you everything you need to know.
4:13
1991.
4:13
And the year before was Schumacher versus Hacken.
4:17
Epic.
4:17
So much to unpack here.
4:19
Can we, we'll ultimately come back to CT Frock, I reckon in the timeline of your career.
4:26
You and I, when we go to Territonga, to Invercargill at the bottom of the South Island each year, when we walk into the club rooms there, we reminisce a little bit.
4:36
And that is because you are reminded of the motorsport connection to your family by a photo on the wall.
4:41
Tell people about that.
4:43
Yeah, it's funny.
4:44
I call him my uncle or my godfather.
4:46
He's neither.
4:47
Yeah.
4:50
That's a little bit of a white lie.
4:51
But no, he is actually my sister's godfather.
4:55
And he was my dad's best mate and best man at his wedding.
5:01
And were it not for Brian Redman, I probably wouldn't be here.
5:05
Because in the tradition that is England, when you leave the church, you drive away in the tin cans behind you and, you know.
5:13
But given that my dad was into rallying and by then Brian was starting his career,
5:20
and all their friends of course were racers and ralliers and all the rest of it my mum and dad took off from their wedding after doing all the nuttules um with brian at the wheel with two other cars trying to cut them off at the field but thanks to brian's adept
5:39
ability in a car, and I think it was a Rover, an old Rover, he managed to avoid said cars, and my parents made it onto their honeymoon, and here I am.
5:50
Amazing.
5:51
But no, Brian, and I was best man at his son's wedding,
5:55
James, which Derek Bell was at and a few others.
5:59
So I've been around the Redmonds and we've supported Brian's Racing.
6:03
And to be honest, I would absolutely say that the reason I do motor racing is that my dad took me to Brian's Hatch when I was about three.
6:10
I hid behind his knees because I was so scared.
6:13
But I have my little autograph book.
6:15
And that day I got, of all people, and I've still got it, Denny Holmes' autograph, Leila Lombardi's autograph and Clay Regazzoni's autograph.
6:24
Magic, magic.
6:26
You would have to begin with, I think, in your childhood years, a bit of a passion for almost acting or theatre to begin with, didn't you?
6:36
Yeah, yeah.
6:37
My grandmother, actually, this'll date it, but my grandmother was best friends with Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street, and she was an extra at the Rovers for 25 years.
6:49
She did other stuff, but that was her claim to fame.
6:52
She was on Coronation Street, and so she was a big performer.
6:56
My dad, likewise, was a businessman, but still, if you met my dad, you'd look at me and go, Oh, you're quite quiet, really, aren't you, John?
7:07
If that puts it in context, that's amazing if that's the case.
7:11
We actually did one of those, you know, 23 ancestry.com things and started searching into the lineage.
7:17
And it turns out a traveling Shakespearean actor definitely had a nefarious night with somebody in our family.
7:25
And we think that's where it all came from.
7:26
Okay, okay.
7:27
We should point out to listeners of the podcast here too, we heard a little mower and a blower there a moment ago.
7:32
I think the neighbours clearly at where you're staying with a production colleague of ours here in New Zealand are working well on their lawns, but you were enjoying the Kiwi sunshine before you hit.
7:41
I'm getting my last pair of Kiwi summer before I head back to winter.
7:45
So what transpires between the thoughts of, you know, perhaps pursuing something in the acting field and going to, in Australia they have a thing called NIDA, which is a very respected acting academy, and I think you were in line to potentially go to something like that in the UK, were you not?
8:03
Yeah.
8:03
So my dad, like I said, was a traveling businessman.
8:06
And so we moved quite a lot around England.
8:08
And my dad had a passion for America as well.
8:11
And he would eventually move to America.
8:13
But in so doing, we went through the boarding school system, which it sounds a bit like your parents don't love you, but it's not true.
8:21
It's the best education you can get.
8:23
And I went to a very, very good school in England called Trosbury School, which, funnily enough, Michael Palin went to.
8:29
Absolutely.
8:30
So there you go.
8:32
But yeah, and I loved it.
8:35
So I was at boarding school and then would come away for holidays and Christmases and summer holidays.
8:41
And in that time, my parents moved to Houston in Texas.
8:45
But it didn't, you know, it didn't faze me at all.
8:48
And I was really enjoying school and I was big in sports and really enjoying that side of it.
8:53
And I got to about 16.
8:54
And you're right, there is a school.
8:56
There was one sort of acting school called RADA, which is where my grandmother went.
9:00
And my dad kind of put me on the spot one day and said, well, look, if you want to pursue this, because I was always doing impersonations and, you know, performing.
9:08
I was in the school plays.
9:09
You know, I loved that.
9:11
I love the thespian side of it.
9:13
And my dad literally put me on the spot and said, look, if this is what you want to do, we'll do it.
9:17
You know, and he was, you know, he's a good parent.
9:19
It was always about, you know, whatever.
9:21
floats your boat go for it and i thought about it long and hard and i realized that you know uh acting is so precarious that you you know and i was living with a silver spoon at that point i was got you know i was living the high life traveling around the world um having lots of holidays and the idea of being a jobbing poor actor didn't really appeal and giving up all sport i was doing and you know the education and everything
9:43
So I said, no, I'm going to go to A-levels.
9:46
And I actually want, I said, I actually think I'd like to what I would call go the legitimate route because I had a vested interest in news and the news process and television.
9:57
So I said, no, I want to make a career out of using, you know, my sort of.
10:04
performance side, but do it in what I would call an educated way.
10:09
And so TV news was where I wanted to go.
10:12
And that's kind of where I started.
10:15
And I reckon you've ended up with a beautiful blend of the two, mate, because you have this wonderful...
10:18
I mean, you talked about the impersonations before.
10:20
The fun we have off camera is...
10:23
is then filtered through to what we do in the broadcast because you have this real nice animation and yet complemented by the broadcasting skill and commentary now that you've developed over the years.
10:34
Can I come to the early part of that sort of journalistic experience?
10:37
Because I've done a similar thing.
10:38
So is our great mate in Lee Diffie who we'll get to as well.
10:43
What was that like?
10:44
And you were dispatched early on, am I right, to interview, to try and corner Nigel Mansell.
10:51
And somewhere, I think you literally bailed him up in a stairwell or something.
10:54
Is this true?
10:55
No.
10:55
Well, the funny thing is, I went to news because sports seemed unobtainable.
11:00
I was a sportsman, but...
11:02
You know, England, as you know, a bit like Australia and New Zealand, you know, there's a guy on the six o'clock news and he does sport or there's a sports commentator for cricket or rugby.
11:12
And they're there for 30 years.
11:13
They're not there for a year and then they get rid of them.
11:16
So to get into, you know, you never thought at 22, oh, here's what I'll do.
11:20
But I was very lucky that when I graduated, I did graduate with a, you know, a journalist, a journalist.
11:27
BFA, as they call it, Bachelor of Fine Arts.
11:29
So I was broadcast journalism, and therefore that was the piece of paper that you needed.
11:34
And I did all the usual things applying to the BBC and all that sort of stuff and didn't get anywhere.
11:40
But in the early 90s, it really collided nicely for it because that year, BSB and Sky both launched satellite television in England.
11:52
Never been seen before.
11:53
It was well established in America today.
11:56
But I got involved in, if you like, the equivalent of SportsCenter in the UK at 22.
12:05
So I was one of eight reporters, the least experienced, but I was one of eight reporters and we had a five-day shift on, four days off, five days on, and we would cover sports news.
12:15
We had five live shows a day and they would send me to the cricket ground, they would send me to a soccer match, and I would stand up and say, Liverpool 131, blah, blah, blah, and so and so, you know, blah, blah.
12:25
You know, the usual sort of reporting stuff, sports center.
12:29
And I was happy as Larry.
12:31
And then one day somebody said, oh, God, Mansell's retiring.
12:36
I'm not going to go there.
12:38
I'm going to go to the cricket at Lord's.
12:39
And I was looking at the office and nobody wanted to cover motor racing.
12:42
And, of course, deep down, that was my true passion and I'd grown up with it.
12:46
But I, again, never thought there was only one commentator or one guy in motorsport in England.
12:50
And that was Murray Walker.
12:51
Walker.
12:51
And he was a huge hero of mine.
12:53
So, yes, long story short, I got sent as a cub reporter to go and get Nigel Mansell's second retirement, because he'd already retired once.
13:03
And he was retiring from Ferrari.
13:06
He'd had enough.
13:06
I think his teammate was a lacy at the time.
13:08
But anyway, he was retiring, and he'd chosen the British Grand Prix to throw it all up in the air.
13:13
So off I went.
13:14
and drove up there full of, you know, full of vigour and tried desperately to get Nigel Bansill to talk to me.
13:22
And, of course, Nigel, being the stroppy bugger he is, said, no, no, no, no.
13:26
And I said, but this is for British TV, and he still said no.
13:29
So then I'm stuck there with my microphone going, now what am I going to do?
13:32
And, of course, you know, time's clicking along, and I'm supposed to be back by 5 o'clock.
13:36
Anyway...
13:37
I wandered around the paddock and sort of a tear in my eye type thing.
13:40
And I bumped into literally Sterling Moss, who was holding court.
13:45
And I stopped and I said, Sterling, could you, you know, and he was ever so gracious.
13:49
And I said, as somebody who's been in this position.
13:53
you know, what do you think?
13:54
And he gave me a wonderful interview and was great.
13:58
And so I kind of got the job as the motorsports correspondent by getting that interview and, you know, following up.
14:05
And, you know, they had plenty of pictures of Mansell.
14:07
So I saved my day.
14:08
Yeah, but I mean, we've got that overused word pivot now since COVID, obviously, but that's what you've got to do sometimes.
14:13
You've got to think laterally.
14:14
If one doesn't work out, what can I do that is... That was so good that he was gracious with his time for you.
14:20
What transpires then, because that...
14:22
That journalistic background serves you incredibly well.
14:25
I think the skills that you get from being away from your passion by doing something else like that.
14:30
I mean, your career is, which I'll come to in a minute, you've covered lots of different sports and things along the way, even though motor racing is the focal point, if you will.
14:41
Clearly someone coming through with a job offer.
14:43
Hopefully I'll be able to keep you for the rest of this podcast.
14:46
podcast yeah as you well know that's not happening that's not happening um so what what transpires here for you between uh newshound and ultimately going the motorsport kind of commentary route how does that happen
15:00
Yeah, well, like I said, I never, you know, I was on, I actually got very lucky.
15:07
My dad had a finance manager in his company in London whose wife was an agent, a television agent in London.
15:16
And that's how I got into television is I kind of joined her roster and went to the office of Métis for about a year and finally got a job or got interviewed for a job.
15:26
And again, another lucky story, but we'll go into that another time.
15:29
But that's how I got into TV.
15:32
And I was going to, you know, she wanted me on camera, on air.
15:35
And I did.
15:36
That's how I started, on air news reporter.
15:40
So it was very lucky because that's rare too.
15:43
But I often get asked this.
15:45
Was I a racing driver or am I a motorhead?
15:48
Or people start describing engines and I just phase over.
15:51
I have no interest.
15:52
My interest has always been and always will be the broadcast process.
15:55
I love live.
15:57
uh tv you'll have seen over the weekend i sit in the i sit in the truck because i love the process i love watching how it's all made and how you know how the magic comes together so motor racing i fell into by both being a background in it and also being um able to do it without a microphone because i'm so loud like yourself rusty um that we're cheap because we don't need a microphone but no um i if you know i i just sort of um
16:23
I got into sport and I was very happy in sport because I knew sport and I felt like having been a sportsman at a low level, but I did make state high jump and all that kind of stuff.
16:33
So, and then I went to college and I played soccer for SMU.
16:37
You know, I did it as a higher level as you could as an amateur.
16:42
Mm-hmm.
16:42
if you will.
16:44
And so I felt like I understood the mindset of a sportsman.
16:48
And I was also intrigued by the mindset of motor sportsmen, who I don't think get kind of the accolades and the praise for being the athletes they are.
16:57
Relative to other athletes.
16:58
Exactly, mate.
16:59
Exactly.
16:59
And we see that in the Toyota Series more than anywhere.
17:02
The mental strain of doing what they do at just 17, telling, you know, literally running an orchestra of 10 to 15 people and making demands of them to change the tires by one PSA because it makes you happy is no mean feat.
17:17
It's like being a conductor in an orchestra at that tender age.
17:20
So I was always fascinated by that.
17:23
And so that's really what put my interest into kind of going into motorsport.
17:27
And I got known for it.
17:28
You know, I started doing it.
17:30
And like I said, I was a reporter.
17:32
I was, again, I was willing to sort of go beyond the reach and do long.
17:37
I mean, long before Brundle was doing grid walks, I was doing this for Sky and World Superbikes.
17:41
So I'm not saying that I invented it, but I certainly was doing it before he was.
17:46
Two things to take away from that.
17:47
Firstly, the passion for it.
17:50
I mean, for people listening, I glanced up at a monitor somewhere during the course of the weekend at Highlands there, and I could see you in the director's chair mucking around.
18:00
So I know you probably love the process.
18:03
And then the, you know, conveying the human athlete side.
18:08
I'm 100% with you on that.
18:10
Before we get into the kind of...
18:11
a bit onto the variety of motorsport you've done.
18:13
Can I pinpoint a couple of things?
18:15
You've mentioned about covering, you know, football or soccer, as people in this part of the world often call it.
18:19
I think there are Cricket World Cups in there.
18:21
Winter Olympics.
18:23
Were you speed sports with that stuff?
18:25
Was it luge?
18:26
Was it – what kind of – what were you doing there?
18:28
No, it was weird because – and that was another really amazing opportunity.
18:33
When BSB, as it was, British Sky Broadcast, British –
18:38
BSB, before it became BSkyB, because if you know your history, Sky bought out the other company, and I was the other company.
18:47
So we were all laid off after a year.
18:49
So I got this dream job only to find that, you know, I was out of a job.
18:54
But I was so young, it didn't matter.
18:55
And by then I had a CV that said, you know, I was doing sports TV.
19:00
But all the equipment, all the edit suites were sold to a company in Hong Kong called Star TV, which is, of course, now owned by Murdoch, same team.
19:07
So News Corp, they weren't owned by News Corp back then, but they bought all our edit suites.
19:12
And of course, all of us, like all 200 of us, however many people were working at BSB, applied for jobs there.
19:20
But again, serpictitiously, I had a god, my actual godfather this time, lived in Hong Kong.
19:28
And came to my graduation and said, look, I haven't got a graduation present for you, but if you want a trip to Hong Kong, you know, mi casa re tu casa.
19:36
So I took him up on that, knowing that this new satellite five-channel thing was starting off in Hong Kong called Star TV, jumped on a plane and...
19:45
you know, there I am.
19:47
So that's how I got there.
19:48
But I've forgotten your question now.
19:49
Well, I'm just wondering about, you know, what you called at Winter Olympics and what games you covered.
19:54
So at Star TV, we had five channels and I got into the sports channel.
19:58
And the first event we did was Albertville.
20:01
1992 Winter Olympics from Albertville.
20:05
And I didn't call any play-by-play, and I wasn't a commentator.
20:08
You know, I'd never thought of commentating at that age.
20:12
I was just a reporter and a presenter.
20:14
I was trying to be an on-screen presenter, which I was, for Star TV.
20:19
And I did, like you say, football, NFL, basketball.
20:22
I used to get up at 5 in the morning to do NBA, God forbid.
20:26
But yeah, Albertville was my first ever Olympics.
20:28
And it was my first real hosting job.
20:31
And, oh, my God, I was so scared that I think I talked goggly-goop.
20:35
But luckily, my director was a really calm Australian guy who sort of nurtured me through it.
20:41
And I got through.
20:43
And, you know, from there on in was U.S.
20:46
Opens and, like I said, NBA, NFL, and eventually motorsport.
20:52
At this point in time, are you animated, Jonathan Green, or are you serious?
20:56
Hello.
20:57
Welcome to the Winter Olympics.
20:59
I'm Jonathan Green.
21:02
I think I was both.
21:04
I think they didn't want to take, you know, they kept the bit in my mouth and held the reins fairly tight.
21:11
Got you.
21:12
And obviously I was young, and so I didn't want to mess up and show them my true idiocy.
21:17
So I think I was rather sensible.
21:19
And I was trying to learn.
21:20
I really was.
21:21
I was trying to learn, you know, having live talk back and a director in your ear.
21:24
And like I said, that's what really fascinated me.
21:27
But also I got to do some amazing things.
21:30
One of the greatest things I ever did at Star is, and this really got me the motorsport bug, is that I did the Hong Kong-Beijing Rally with Possum Bourne, a name you'll know very well.
21:39
Fantastic.
21:41
And Richard...
21:43
Richard Burns?
21:44
No.
21:44
Richard Burns.
21:45
Richard Burns.
21:46
And Colin McRae.
21:47
And Colin McRae the year before.
21:49
So we did, it was the 555 State Express Hong Kong to Beijing rally.
21:55
And we covered it and we drove it.
21:56
That's cool.
21:57
Yep.
21:58
And we drove it from Hong Kong.
22:01
with the ahead of the rally so we positioned one cameraman one chinese driver uh me and me and a cameraman and we drove the entire 3 500 kilometers from hong kong all the way to tianamon square where we parked up and i did my last piece to camera and that's actually where i met david hedge
22:19
That's his place around as we talk, yeah.
22:22
Yeah, he was doing, he was in charge of the TV for the actual rally.
22:28
So I would bump into him along the way and say, oh, where's your cameraman?
22:31
Oh, I'm here.
22:32
Can we go here, you know, sort of thing.
22:34
And share resources.
22:35
Yeah, yeah.
22:35
Yeah, and we've been friends ever since, so it's kind of cool.
22:38
But it was an amazing experience.
22:39
We had, you know, we had dinner in the hall of the people, you know, and I stole the matches because I was like, God, you're not going to get that opportunity very often.
22:48
um by the way that that was a myth i never really did if the chinese government's watching i'll drop them i'll draw i'll bring them back next year if you're enjoying this one with jonathan green you'll love some of the yarns with the former voice of moto gp nick harris
23:13
And Casey and I said, Valentino was in the press conference a lot of the rest.
23:16
There was utter silence.
23:19
Complete and utter silence.
23:20
And Valentino just mouth open.
23:23
People just couldn't believe it.
23:24
He was retiring then.
23:27
From hosting that press conference when Casey Stoner shocked the sport by announcing his retirement, to working with the late, great Barry Sheen, time in the F1 paddock, and much more.
23:38
Search for Nick Harris in the garage library when you get to the finish line here with JG.
23:45
Can I do two more things before we mainly kind of focus back on motorsport?
23:50
Snooker.
23:53
Tell me about that.
23:55
Well, yeah, you would go, surely not.
23:57
How could you sit silently for six hours?
24:01
But I did.
24:01
And not just snooker.
24:03
I did snooker, eight ball pool and darts.
24:07
We would call it pikey sports because it was really, you know, I mean, when you're watching snooker all day long, you're not really at the office working, are you?
24:15
You're in the pub.
24:17
And to be honest, I was a huge fan because snooker is a massive sport in England for some reason.
24:23
And mainly because it was at night.
24:25
And, you know, you could spend all night watching Steve Davis, which we did.
24:29
And I was absolutely pinching myself because my co-host, my guest in the studio was Steve Davis.
24:36
And what you don't know about Steve Davis is he is incredibly boring as a snooker player, but as a fascinating, absolute hilarious guy.
24:45
He's a techno gadget freak.
24:47
He has his own Motown radio show and he loves the blues, which I do.
24:52
And so we got on like a house on fire.
24:54
And I was like my new best friend was Steve Davis.
24:56
And I remember calling my dad going, you're not going to believe this.
24:59
Me and Steve Davis have got the same computer.
25:02
We were sharing gadgets.
25:04
That's unreal.
25:05
Yeah.
25:06
And to think of his personality being so different to what you might have expected.
25:11
Yeah.
25:11
Yeah.
25:12
Very funny.
25:12
Awesome.
25:13
Darts now is a huge thing.
25:15
The following around it is – what was that like?
25:19
Well, I'll give you one example.
25:21
And, yes, we were at the forefront of that because Sky very much led – I'll tell you what, when I left Darts, there were 23 cameras involved.
25:29
That's incredible.
25:31
We had four on the board.
25:33
And the Crafty Cockney, as he was called, was my co-host.
25:39
What's his name?
25:41
I forgot his name now.
25:42
But anyway, former world champion, retired.
25:46
Eric Bristow.
25:47
There you go.
25:49
Was my co-commentator.
25:50
And what Eric would do, he would do the top of the show with me, which was like a five-minute, just like you do with C.T.
25:56
Frock.
25:57
You know, here's what's coming, a graphic of who's playing, and on we go with the first section.
26:01
Then he would go back into the truck, stand behind the director and go...
26:06
Double 10, missed double 10, he's going 7.
26:08
7, no, he's missed 7, he's going... Oh, double top, 8.
26:13
And so my director would direct the cameras to Eric playing in his head of the player out there.
26:19
And it was one of the most fascinating things I'd ever seen.
26:22
And it still happens to this day.
26:23
They take a player or an ex-player, and he calls the shots.
26:27
Because no director is that good at darts that you can think... Because they do, they have a memory that is able to play the game, you know, that quick.
26:34
What an art form.
26:36
That is an art form.
26:37
And what a great thing for TV because you see it on TV and you're like, how the hell do they know to be focused on the double six?
26:43
This, yeah.
26:44
And yet, because some dart player is going, he's got to go double six here.
26:48
And then when they don't, he goes, oh, or double three.
26:50
And suddenly, quickly, another camera gets to that.
26:53
Anyway, it's amazing.
26:55
But the story I wanted to tell you was that Eric, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind me telling this story.
27:00
As you know, it's a bit of a drinking game, is old darts.
27:05
And we would start at about 10.30 in the morning, and we would let the crowd in, the 2000 crowd in, about 9.30.
27:13
And the bar was open.
27:14
So by about the time we went to air, everybody was having a good time.
27:18
And I'll never forget my...
27:21
director said okay minute to air greenie tighten your tie uh you good uh and i'll cross eric and i said yeah you good and he goes yep he then lifted a broccily breezer and downed it in one put it down grabbed another one he had three offered me one and i said no good good to go thanks by the time we went to air he'd had three and i was like i don't know how this is gonna go
27:46
But it went fine and he was straight as a die.
27:49
But that's gone for you.
27:51
Don't try that at home, kids.
27:53
No, not advised.
27:54
And certainly we don't blend that with motor racing.
27:56
You have this very rare thing on your CV.
27:59
There are not many of us that do around the diversity of things that you've covered.
28:04
I mean, you talked rally there a moment ago.
28:05
But you've done some pinnacle two-wheel and some pinnacle four-wheel stuff.
28:10
Can we come to the bike side first?
28:12
There'll be plenty of bike fans in Australia and New Zealand listening that –
28:16
will fondly remember your voice from things like, well, super bikes and so on.
28:20
Tell us about the transition into that and how good that period of your career was.
28:26
Because I feel, Jonathan, like for, you know, we are reminded of you every summer here in New Zealand with the Grand Prix and so on, but people will acutely remember you from that period.
28:37
It really, in the minds of a lot of people in this region, I think puts you on the map here in some ways, you know?
28:43
Yes.
28:43
there's no question certainly in australia um i was amazed actually the reaction by the aussies especially fox um we worked obviously so to go back a step yeah when i was at star tv we covered we i i had a show i had my own show by the end of leaving there after six years i had my own show called grand prix sunday and it was amazing because we have because we were asia so there was no competition so we had formula one um indycar
29:09
MotoGP and World Superbikes every weekend.
29:12
And we would go on air for five hours, sometimes six hours, and go from one sport to the next and have a studio.
29:20
a guest a bike guest and a car guest and that's how i got to know sky so i got to know keith hewan jimmy rider and and the production team there because we were taking their feed their commentary so when i went back to england after star tv uh i went back home to work and i and i basically called sky and said hey i'm the guy you've been working with in asia and immediately they sent me to donning to park as a reporter and i worked with keith and julian so i started off in world super bikes
29:45
with Sky and quickly started doing grid walks and stuff like that and, you know, getting in the faces of Carl Fogarty.
29:52
It was the Carl Fogarty era.
29:54
So, I was Carl Fogarty's personal reporter, if you will.
29:58
You know, we often jokingly say it, Sky, we made him the millionaire personality that he is because he's
30:04
He's actually from just down the road from Burnley in Blackburn is where he's from.
30:09
So he's almost literally 10 miles from where my family grew up.
30:12
So I knew how to deal with a Dower Northerner.
30:16
And he was a lovely guy, actually, and he is now.
30:18
But during his time, he had this huge persona, just as Mick Doohan did and I did his career too.
30:23
They were tough, mate.
30:23
They were tough to interview, weren't they?
30:25
They were, you had to crack them.
30:27
If you can crack them, you're going well in that period.
30:30
And it's odd.
30:31
I see Mick now at Formula One and he's in the background and I'll be like,
30:34
like, Mick!
30:35
And nobody, everybody's like, who's that guy?
30:36
And they're so chilled now in the wake of it.
30:39
All that stuff is off their shoulders, they can enjoy it a bit more, and I'm sure they always had that personality, but it's like we're now seeing more of that.
30:47
And again, happenstance, when Lee took over...
30:52
the World Superbike World Feed Commentary, Lee Diffie this is.
30:55
And I got to know him because he moved to London and he was working with me and Andrew Marriott doing motorsport shows at Sky.
31:04
And of course, he's worse than me.
31:07
So we got on like a house on fire and discovered drinking together was even more fun and telling stories was even more fun.
31:14
And so we had a hilarious time.
31:18
But he then got the job at World Superbikes.
31:20
And as the official commentator, and I stayed at Sky, but we would, you know, bump into each other in Kyalami, South Africa or wherever it was because we were both working on the same thing.
31:31
Then he got the job in the States.
31:34
And literally, I went, who's taking over?
31:37
And, you know, what did he care?
31:39
And so that's I've literally followed him into World Superbikes afterwards and got the official job, which I did for 15 years.
31:48
And my major cohort in that was Steve Martin, an Australian who won the World Endurance Championship with Yamaha.
31:56
And I just had it was a pleasure because he'd never it was really interesting because he was at the end of his career and I was interviewing him and he.
32:04
You know, Steve, he's such an honest guy and just a really gentle gentleman is the best word I can describe him.
32:12
And I did a couple of interviews with him and I could see he was cracking.
32:15
He was cracking.
32:16
He hadn't been paid.
32:17
He was risking his life.
32:19
He just had a baby and he was done with it.
32:22
And he started telling me things about the insides of his job.
32:26
And I took him aside afterwards and I was like, mate, I appreciate your honesty, but don't tell me stuff like that.
32:31
We're live and, you know, and he was almost too honest.
32:35
We got to know each other well.
32:36
And anyway, when he hung it up, I said, hey, man.
32:39
How about joining me in the boot?
32:41
Because I'd love the insight of somebody that is so respected by the riders, so loved by everybody in the sport, and he is to this day.
32:49
And he's articulate too around all that stuff, isn't he?
32:51
So I was very privileged.
32:54
And we then became almost like a married couple on air because I was, you know, that was, you asked when I was able to be myself.
33:01
Well, that was it with Steve Martin because he was my straight guy.
33:04
He would be like, no, no, that's, I'd be like, oh, no, he's terrible.
33:07
He'd be like, no, that was perfect, Johnny.
33:11
And the pair of you keep a great relationship and friendship to this day, and with Lee, for that matter, too.
33:17
I know I walked in on a call with Steve when we were getting ready to go on air over summer.
33:23
That chapter, that's an amazing run when you think about it, Jonathan.
33:28
I mean, you talked about the length of time that you did the Macau Grand Prix.
33:33
Now, I mean, that in world superbikes, to be able to do it,
33:36
for that long.
33:37
Are there a couple of moments that really stand out for you?
33:40
And it could be peaks or troughs here around either, you know, a really good rider or maybe even a tough moment in the racing from that world superbike period that you remember vividly.
33:52
Yeah, there's no question.
33:54
There's a couple.
33:54
Obviously, Fogarty's days up against Keeley and Slyte and so on and so forth were amazing.
34:00
Aaron Slyte, who's in our library, Frankie Keeley.
34:02
Yeah, keep going.
34:03
And I helped him with his book after he retired too because that was an amazing story coming back from the brain animerism he had.
34:11
And so that was a special era.
34:15
but so too was the Ben Spees era.
34:17
I did a docu-series on Ben Spees, of course, who's from Texas.
34:20
And by then, you know, my parents were in Texas.
34:22
So, you know, I was following Scott Russell and Colin Edwards and Kevin Schwantz.
34:29
You know, the Texans I idolized, you know, and Ben Spees was the next off the shelf, so to speak.
34:35
And I worked with his mother, Mary, who was quite an interesting lady.
34:38
And...
34:40
We did it.
34:40
We followed him for the last four.
34:43
I had my own cameraman and we followed him for the last five rounds of his world championship.
34:49
And we miked up the engineer, miked up Ben.
34:52
And it was fascinating.
34:53
You really got the insight.
34:55
So that was special.
34:55
But the other one I want to mention is I think one of the greatest moments I ever had in motorcycle racing was with Steve Martin.
35:02
um he invited me and this again was towards the end of his career he'd finished world super bikes but he was still doing world endurance with uh yacht yamaha europe and he was leading the world championship uh with you know three other riders in the world endurance championship
35:19
And he invited me to Le Mans and said, hey, what are you doing that weekend?
35:23
And, you know, by then it was like, well, it's just another weekend.
35:26
And so, yep.
35:27
And I wasn't working.
35:28
So I went with him and I was his pit bitch, if you will.
35:35
But he said to me, you know, can you kind of get, you know, can you help me with cleaning helmets, trying, you know, whatever's needed.
35:44
I said, dude, I'm your guy.
35:46
And it was good because I wasn't related to the team.
35:49
You know, I was just his guy.
35:51
I was like a brother.
35:53
And, of course, it rained for 22 hours.
35:56
And unbeknownst to me, he also lost one of his best friends to cancer the day before in Australia.
36:03
So poor old Steve is out there.
36:05
It's pouring with rain.
36:06
He's coming in, screaming and shouting about the fact that he can't see because the visors don't work.
36:13
And I'm going up to the visor place at Arai, and I don't know if you know this, but at Le Mans, you can get a visor replacement because everybody rides their bike there.
36:22
And so there's a huge crowd around each of the helmet places.
36:25
So I'm going, pilote, pilote, which means basically... Rider, rider.
36:29
Yeah, I need to...
36:30
Pfizer now.
36:31
Yeah.
36:31
Get everybody else out of the way.
36:32
And of course they would stop.
36:33
And who's this?
36:34
Ah, Steve Martin.
36:35
Ah, we like Steve Martin.
36:36
You know, all this sort of stuff.
36:37
So off I rush back.
36:39
Then his leathers are soaked.
36:42
So I'm there with the bloody, you know, hairdryer.
36:46
And he's got this.
36:47
And then I'm having to dry the underwear.
36:49
Yeah.
36:50
And of course he's got this lucky pair of Australian flagged underwear, which I tried I think about six times over the 24 hours.
37:02
And lo and behold, he won the bloody thing.
37:05
And after a lot of screaming and shouting, it was probably one of the greatest moments for him.
37:11
And to be there as part of it was one of the greatest moments for my motor racing career.
37:15
And he did admit that he had five pairs of those underpants, but he just thought it was funny that I would drive them for him each time.
37:27
That's the end of part one of my podcast with motorsport commentator Jonathan Green.
37:31
Make sure you check out his Speed City broadcast page too, including the YouTube content from the New Zealand Summer Series, this F1 and more.
37:40
Because this is a feature chat, we have another 30 minutes with JG.
37:44
It's all loaded up in the Rusty's Garage library for you to enjoy whenever it suits your schedule.
37:49
From making a splash...
37:52
literally on the nighttime news, to impersonating Valentino Rossi.
37:56
He does it very well.
37:58
Plus, the seriously impressive talent pool coming out of Toyota's Formula Regional Oceania Championship who are ready to take on the world.