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What I've Learnt - Lisa Hunt · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Byron Bay bass soul singer Lisa Hunt has performed with Pavarotti, Andrea Picelli, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, James Brown, Joe Cocker, Miles Davis, Macy Gray, Tana Turner, and Brian May, and that's just a few of the incredible people that she's spent her life performing with.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Hunter achieved fame and relative success in Italy, where she has been credited as one of the most incredible voices of the past years.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: In Italy, she is said to have performed one of the most intense interpretations of John Lennon's Imagine.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Lisa began singing in that great African-American tradition, the Gospel Church, which laid the foundation of her soulful singing style.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: She went on to study voice at the City College of New York, where she received a BFA in music.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Her debut album was A Little Piece of Magic, The Universal Polydor.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: She's had songs on numerous compilations around the globe, both as singer and songwriter, and has sold more than a million records.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: As the rivers rise in Queensland and New South Wales, with the worst floods in 500 years in that region, Lisa's hometown of Bowen Bay has been swamped, literally, as Mother Earth and her deluge soak the Northern Rivers region.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: All her equipment and possessions are in a shed bordering the Great River, which is swollen, while she waits it out on the Gold Coast.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Lisa's concert in Tweedheads is likely cancelled, band members are stuck in Mullumbimbi, and all this after two years of COVID.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: So Lisa and I get real about humility in the face of nature, meditation as a tool to cope, and the power of music.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: So Lisa, I do love your music and have seen you perform several times.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: So welcome to the What I've Learnt podcast.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Good to be here.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Lisa, firstly, I think when we booked this interview, we didn't know that you were going to be in the middle of an insane uh torrential downpour, which is really Mother Earth just lurching up and flooding Byron Bay.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're on the ground there in Byron, your hometown for many years.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me what it's like with the biggest floods there in, they're saying the biggest floods in 500 years.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Can you give me some insight into how you're coping and and and what's happening there on the ground?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm actually up on the Gold Coast.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not even not much better.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I'm getting um my information from my band members who are down there.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we're actually cut off the communications in Ballinar and Linux, so I can't get through by the phone anymore.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: But um they were expecting high tide.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: They had one this morning and another one coming late tonight.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're not sure if they're gonna get out for our show on Friday.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not even sure the show will go on because it's in the tweet hits.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So life is just at the moment, just watching, waiting, praying that uh the worst is over.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And Malin Bindi is uh disastrous.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's really no words.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: How do you what can you say about um when Mother Nature flares up and show you who's in control, really?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you just have to be humbled.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: You're just humbled and at the mercy of uh this this incredible planet that existence that we we live, that it's not all about us all the time.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, you know.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mother Nature doesn't care if I sang with Pavarotchi or that's actually about Ray Charles or any what else.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh so yeah, it's it's it's humble, humbling and a balancing, balancing act, you know, mentally, just to stay, yeah, you know, to try to stay calm, knowing that everything's gonna be okay.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll you know we'll come good again.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: But but understandably, I can hear Lisa, you're very emotional and you're very obviously anxious, which is completely explicable because really I know Byron Bay is very much part of your heart, as is the whole coast, because you've played up and down that coastline, tweet heads and gold coast everywhere, and it's your home.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: My home home 20 years now.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you know a lot of people, obviously.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: And as you say, your band members are stuck in Ballinor, is it?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or Mullum Bimbi and Balliner and yeah, yeah.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so so is there any sense of from your perspective, what can be done and what should be done?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: And are you comfortable that that have you been speaking to other people other than like in your community and and how they're faring?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because obviously, yes, you're on the Gold Coast, but it's still quite terrifying because it's also up and down that coast as well.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: But but what are your what's your main concern and priority right now?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um the main concern is that things don't get worse because at the moment they're manageable.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, just to stay patient and you know, humans are very resilient.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So once the worst is over, you know, it's all about um cleaning up and you know getting life back to normal.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And what is normal anyway in a COVID situation?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's just been two years of learning to be patient and being humbled by the reality.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it's another continuation.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Before that, we had the bushfires, and um, you know, we were going through literally driving through the forests with with trees burning to go to a gig.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Saturday we had a show in Newcastle, so we drove down you know through torrential rains, and um I just there were a couple of times we almost turned around, but like, okay, we're we're here, and suddenly it cleared up and um you know, around Tari, and like, okay, we made it.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: How do we get home?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's extraordinary stories, and I mean you have performed all over the globe and all over Australia, and you've been doing it for a long time.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever seen anything like this?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not specifically like this, but yeah, I remember because I've been touring for 20 years, I've we've been through bushfires and uh yeah, we've been through pretty much every scenario going and being an original New Yorker, I have this the show must go on mentality.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it have to be pretty dire not to make it chitty gig.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, you're very committed and you're very focused.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you you, you know, that is very much your philosophy, and you can see just even the way that your presence is very much about the show must go on.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: But when it's being uh held up by Mother Nature, as you say, it's certainly humbling.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: And tell me from your perspective, how are you managing?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: How are you, what what tools are you tapping in?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: What resources have you got?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: For myself, yeah, for yourself.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Of interest in this latest or through the whole um, well, probably, yeah.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, it's been it's been times of high anxiety, I can tell you that.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've had to learn to deal with that anxiety.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm using a lot of meditation, actually.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Love meditation.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: When I get to play music, that's inspiring, but a lot of it is just just managing managing anxiety.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Eating a packet of crisp every day.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing like a packet of crisps every day.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: I understand, I hear you.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: I hear you.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: But it's interesting because I do think that that it's so dystopian what we've all been through, that to be honest, whatever can get you through within reason, but also I'm assuming that the beauty is that you come from a very strong community.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Byron Bay is a very connected community, as is Ballinar and that whole coast.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Has that helped you at all, knowing that there are strong community ties and connections?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm hearing some really good things from some of those people in terms of, you know.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, it's just that kind, it's just that kind of a place, a small group, and you know everyone.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone knows everyone.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, people are just rushing in to help and sending food and cooking and pillows and blankets and and opening their homes to people who are, you know, who are stuck out is and you know, Byron's been that way since I went there.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's 20 years ago.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So do you know if your home is okay?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I actually moved eight months ago up to the Gold Coast, but all of my worldly possessions are in storage in Ballina, like right on the banks of the river.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I I understand.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me, so in terms of um what's in that storage, is that mainly your um your furniture?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Furniture, furniture, recording equipment, pretty much everything.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I because of COVID, I had the because Queensland was locked down, you know, with just over the border, but there was no way to like actually get.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: I only bought my bed.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: That was that was the main thing.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I just got made sure my bed got up here and um so that will also have all your paraphernalia and all your uh photographs, etc.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hope they're protected because really I think that's you've got some incredible history, although thank goodness there is also digital history as well.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't go back as far as I'm going back.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yes, this may be true from what you're saying.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hope and pray, and we are hoping and praying with you that everything's okay, but that goes to that community tone that I can everyone's just helping everyone.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, they are, they are.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so for you, are you feeling that you will perform Friday?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hope.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, yeah, it's hard to tell because we're performing at the Seagulls, which is right on the Tweet River.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: At the moment, I looked and the road there is closed.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not yeah, okay, it's it's it's all up in the air.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: But Lisa, you were just coming back to what um we were chatting about before you got the call.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: There was talk about tools that you're using to cope with everything from the last two years of COVID through to uh managing this incredible one-off, extraordinary flooding event.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: And you said meditation is helping a lot.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Can you talk to me a little bit about how that is helping you and what other tools you're using?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it it just basically allows you to keep keep realigning to from a fear response into a place where you where you're calm and collected and not panicking.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you can think clearer and you know, you can function, do what you have to do, you can accept what's what's actually happening instead of thinking too far in the future or thinking what happened behind you, you're just kind of living that moment and um, you know, just keeping yourself, you know, easy.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Same pretty much.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: And as we know, music is a universal healer, and you've been singing for many years.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Can you talk to me about where it all started?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: New York, where I was born.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: So uh just music has been a part of my life from from you know, as early as I can remember, through uh church.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: We sang in the gospel choir, sang in school choir, sang in the community choir.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was just just the little singing that we sang out on the streets of of Brooklyn, you know, just me and my friends, we'd be harmonizing on this on the steps in in uh during the day.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just I my my destiny was written.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and what a destiny it was.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, really, it's quite it's quite an incredible story, wasn't it?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because as I understand it, and you can tell the story that that somebody approached you to come and sing in Italy, is that right?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's life-changing for you.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, it was life-changing.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was at the time I was living in London, and um, yeah, this Italian superstar kind of I was busking at um Coven Garden, and as it as it stood, he missed his plane to go back to Italy and came there just to hang out for the day, and there was performing, and he has, I want you to come to Italy to sing in my very good Italian accent there, Lisa.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm quite impressed.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really, and uh initially it was just gonna be three months, and then that turned into a 20-year relationship of touring and recording, and yeah, interrupted only by um a two-year stint with Jimmy Barnes, who also had I was doing uh a charity gig in Sydney, and because no one knew who I was at all, I was like on last.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: So by the time I went on, it was late night, no one was left.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: But Jimmy had left his uh sunglasses in the dressing room and came back for him while I was singing.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I get this guy comes up and he's like, Jimmy Bond wants to sing with you.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: He jumps on stage, and you know, I think we sang River Deep, you know.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, great song, and you'd be so good at that.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think I've heard you sing that actually.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great cool.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what an incredible story.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: Came back for his sunglasses, and then he wants to sing with you.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you do River Deep.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: I bet there were plenty of people listening.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Probably about three weeks later, uh, get a call from this lawyer guy and say, Jimmy Barnes is looking for you.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that wonderful?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um touring with Jimmy for recording with him for two years.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, what an experience.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: And what did you learn from Jimmy?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: What did he teach you?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just um what I observed is he taught just how to every day is like the first time he's singing.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've never seen, even since then, I've never seen anyone that like enthusiastic about music.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's like just breathing it, and you know, he's always happy to get to the to wherever he's performing and to you know get ready for the show.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And just like for me, it's like when I'm doing the show, that's when when all those all the joy comes.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you actually for me, when I'm actually performing, he's like, Oh, let me at it.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you can see even during COVID, every day there's they're doing a song online with the whole family.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Family, I love it.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's another child each each day each week, there's another child.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, there's another child on his lap, or you know that kind of that kind of love of music is just um you know insane.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's insane.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's a pretty cool, yeah, pretty cool grandfather.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I love the way all these kids sing.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you've obviously I I think you've done some, have you done some performing with Malia, his daughter at Mahalia?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, they obviously got such an incredible energy.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you love touring with him, and also he obviously gave you the platform to really reach other people you might otherwise not have, yeah.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when once you it's a thing about, you know, if if you perform with Pavarotti, it means something to people.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you perform with Jimmy Barnes, if you've sung with Midnight Oil, it means something to a lot of people, even though when as a performer, we say you're as big as your next geek.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so it's um, but it but once you it's almost like when you read back on your own history and you go, oh yeah, I did this, I did that, oh, that was great.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you have all those memories collectively, it turns into you know a pretty nice, pretty nice story.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very good one, it's a great one.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's a nice way to look back and and remember what you've done.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I like doing that.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I have, you know, I think on my phone it's about 30,000 pictures and videos.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you've got some great history, and I I mean, even in my research, just looking, there's so much that you've done, but also what a great way to spend life traveling the world, playing music.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not, I mean, I'm not glib in the sense that I know how hard what hard you work and how demanding it can be, and how you gotta, as you say, you've got to be the show must go on, and there's plenty of obstacles, but there's something incredibly cathartic about what you do, and you also heal others, and that's it's a very spiritual thing.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's amazing.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, giving others your musical energy.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that a lot of people through COVID and through these crises find music extremely healing.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so, from that perspective, I think you've given a lot to the community just in the way.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know how many times you've performed at that Byron Bay Hotel, the beach hotel, and you know, you've got a very big following, people adore you.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: What's some of the highlights for you?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned you you played with Midnight Oil, um, Pavarotti, and I've got that, I've mentioned that in the intro.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me some of the highlights for you that you can recall.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: And some may not also be, they may be celebrity oriented, but there might be others that that resonate for you.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's, you know, there's always your favorite places to play, like the Beach Hotel was just epic.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: And for that to be my hometown was just you know, what more can you ask?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Every you once a month you get that, you get that healing.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's great pubs.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: I like playing.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Kingscliffe Beach Hotel.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, cool, yeah.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Howie Moey.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and and yeah, then there's that's that's consistent.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Those are constant things that that you know are gonna come up and they keep happening to you.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: I've done like things that people don't know, like amazing weddings, like beautiful weddings where you're not the performer, you're just part of this intimate thing, once in a lifetime kind of situation.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's beautiful, you know.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have celebrity moments, you're doing some kind of you know, international fundraiser, and that's oh, that's it.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's oh, oh, hi.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's all just one big, beautiful pie of music, and um I'm glad I knew from an early age what I wanted to do, because a lot of people don't know that.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: They just, you know, I I see people feel like, hmm, what am I gonna do with my life?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I had no choice what what I was gonna do with my life because that's how badly I wanted it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So whether I was busking on a street or singing in the subway, or singing with a hundred thousand people with midnight oil, or you know, or on the stage in Italy with Pavarotti, it's all part of that living that dream.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so the dream is to to make music.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you can have in that, and I'm still doing it.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that's because you're so good.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's why you're doing it, because you are so good.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I I love your music.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: People who are not performing.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it it's it's a gift, but it's also you have to have the passion that you want to do it above everything else.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're willing to put in the phone calls, just everything involved, you know, booking flights and planes.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not like a celebrity where you know I have a secretary and a travel agent and a manager and all that.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So pretty much do it all myself.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: Which is interesting because you do a lot of it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: So it must be pretty busy.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, recently with it being hit by the arts being hit so hard, um, did you find that you adapted okay, or did you because obviously so many things were closed?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, I was on JobKeeper, yeah, like so many people.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I was on job job keeper for um probably that first year, the first year of COVID.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um then um I actually sold my house in Byron and decided that 20 years I was gonna uh I had a bit of a falling out with the beach hotel, and to me that was kind of like the last my last attachment to this place that I loved for for two decades, and and it was just when COVID hit and everyone wanted to move to Byron, so I was just very in and it was such a snap decision, it only happened, I think, in less than a month.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: So after 20 years, to living living in in my house, in you know, and it was a beautiful home to you have to leave in a month.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just like that's why everything's still in storage, because it was just get out, and that made me feel um a bit more financially stable because I here I had you know the the money from selling a home, so I I didn't have to worry about uh you know, job keeper and all the bills and maintenance and all that kind of stuff of surviving because it's pretty expensive to live.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was some kind of security.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: And now it's like, what do I do for the next 10, 15 years?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's hope you keep singing because uh certainly I think that there's a very long line of people who uh want to book you.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the other thing I was gonna ask you is I know you have a long-term partner, husband, and tell me a bit about that because you've been married a long time.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've been married a long time, and you know, so um he's been overseas for the last I hadn't seen him.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is the first time in 39 years we've been together that I didn't see him for eight months because he, you know, the whole COVID thing was doing his heading, so he decided to just leave the country uh because he's barren bull.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not being locked down in my house and um tracing around Africa and uh India, he's in India now.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: 39 years, and that's what, but it is, I mean, there's a lot of people that felt that way.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people did do that because they just couldn't cope, like mentally they felt trapped.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so I gather because you obviously had other plans that that you guys made a decision to make that work, which a lot of people did and had to, because it, you know, different, it's interesting how different people respond to a crisis like that.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I wasn't going anywhere.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: I sat I was in the house, and then you know, he decided he just couldn't he couldn't say so.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: The only way they would let you leave Australia is if you were going long term.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like I'm I'm leaving, and and he actually left.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: So here I was, no house, no work, no husband.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh my god, this is definitely uh a pretty intense time for you.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty intense.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: My family, I couldn't usually I go every year to visit my family in in the states.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, it was two years I couldn't see my family in in America, is just I guess it's the most stripped down emotional state that I've I've experienced.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, it's like we're gonna take everything from you, everything, and uh see how you go.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's no music happening, no uh your family, no husband.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Lisa, that is pretty much not well, first of all, you're not alone in that journey because a lot of people have had that.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: But what I think you're saying is that it really brought you to a very tough space that you've had to navigate.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like you're doing that slowly emerging, but of course now the floods have hit, but they will pass.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is do you have plans to visit family in America or is your husband planning to come back to Australia?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's gonna come back um in April.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well, that's not a couple of months, you said, and I flew over as soon as they like literally they opened the border, and and I we've met up in the Maldives for a couple of weeks, which is.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, lucky you know that sounds nice.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that was um, yeah, I'll I'll I'll be hitting the road after the next part of the tool, which finishes in June, and then I'll I'll go over to the states or the state and Italy.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that sounds like a pretty good plan.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of what you're describing too is I think what people need is a sense of purpose and they also need a plan.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like you need to know that you can plan stuff and it won't be cancelled or it won't be, we won't be blocked.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I I really understand that that's given you a little bit of light up ahead.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can see that come April, which is not that far away.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so tell me, what are your secrets to a 39-year marriage?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: What what is what are some of the keys to making that work?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty impressive.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: There is no key, believe me, there were times where like we're not gonna make 39 years.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just um I don't know.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, you know, you can't can't get away from each other, you know.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've spent we've had times where um we lived apart back in the day when I I got a record deal in in Italy.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I also had a record deal in England as well, but he wanted to come back to Australia, so he was here.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we had like two and a half years where we didn't really, you know, we just have a few weeks together.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's the key.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that is the key.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: But then that's after, you know, 10 years of being here 24 hours a day.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: So there's just a connection that that that never broke, even when we got to the point where you know we wanted to get divorced, we still couldn't do it.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I love that.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it says something about you and he's Australian, is he?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's Australian.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, which is how you ended up here.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: And we're very grateful that you did because you have entertained a lot of families, a lot of pubs, a lot of audiences, and we are so happy that you are going to be hopefully back on the road soon.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to thank you so much for talking to me at this quite challenging time, but you've given us a really good insight into what is happening there, you know, in Queensland and in Byron.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: And we just hope and pray for everybody and also look forward to hearing you and your music live as soon as possible.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, me too, me too.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: So you take care and we will see you very soon, I have no doubt.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, thanks, Deb.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: You take care too.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, bye Lisa.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for listening.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: The What I've Learned podcast will now be coming to you weekly with new episodes released every Tuesday.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm blessed to have so many wonderful guests coming on the show.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: So check out my What I've Learned Instagram for updates.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, stay tuned, kind, and curious.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Love Deb.