James Taylor, a man who has lived his life through song, has decided his April tour of Australia will be his swansong.
"This may be the last time I tour Down Under, I'm really hoping you all can make it. I'll see you one last time," he said in February. When I ask him about this he chooses not to confirm or deny, but drops several subtle hints.
It's been six months since Taylor has played with his band and he's keen to regroup - even if it means leaving his two beloved pug pups back home in Massachusetts.
"The last time I was out with my band was last September, so this has been a long hiatus for me," the six-time Grammy Award winner says.
"I'm anxious to get back together with the band, and to get back to Australia. It's such an exceptional place - so singular, so unique - it's always wonderful to go there."
Taylor first toured in Australia in 1981 and his upcoming tour, An Evening with James Taylor and His All-Star Band, will be his eighth. This 10-date tour includes a stop-off at Bowral in the Southern Highlands.
"Since I was a kid, really little, I have had a fascination with your part of the world," he says, telling me about his father, Dr Isaac "Doc" Taylor, who was stationed at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica in the 1950s as a medical officer.
"I used to imagine what it was like there and finally made it there myself in the early '70s. In a way the epitome of what I love about this life is being able to travel to a far-away place and to perform for an audience that is remarkably there for me."
THE STORYTELLER
Many a poet dreamed of being a singer-songwriter in the 1970s. Taylor, a born storyteller, became one of the most successful... and influential. His songs, inspired as they are by his own experiences (and personal demons), continue to strike a chord with songwriters and music lovers today.
In 1971 he scored his first number one single with You've Got A Friend, written by Carole King, as well as his first Grammy Award for best male pop vocal. Taylor has more than 100 million album sales to his name, has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters halls of fame, and in 2015 was presented with the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Taylor has always penned intensely personal lyrics, using it a form of self-expression. He has spoken publicly, and often, about trying to make sense of his life through song. In fact, you can trace the timeline of Taylor's life through his songs; the highs as well as the lows. He sings about drug addiction and recovery, heartbreak and love, marriage and divorce, life and death. Nothing is taboo.
In his song Fire and Rain, for example, he sings about the hopelessness he feels as he struggles with addiction: Won't you look down upon me, Jesus? / You've got to help me make a stand / You've just got to see me through another day / My body's aching and my time is at hand / And I won't make it any other way.
The delicacy of the song's melody and Taylor's gentle finger-picking on guitar is in stark contrast to the hard-hitting lyrics. Fire and Rain's opening verse is about a friend of Taylor's who died by suicide.
He wrote the upbeat Jump Up Behind Me about his father coming to his rescue when he was depressed and on heroin; You and I Again is an ode to his wife Kim, and the comfort and feeling of completeness she brings to his life.
The last time I spoke to Taylor in 2017 I told him about my father's habit of listening to his music - and that of Kris Kristofferson, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot, to name a few - in a quiet space with a glass of whisky in hand. He was and still is a lyrics man.
I ask Taylor which songwriters he admires.
"Well, the ones you just mentioned, to start with. Tell your dad thanks for putting me in such great company," he replies.
"I love Randy Newman's lyrics, Joni's [Mitchell] too.
"Donald Fagan from Steely Dan, he's a master in my opinion, and of course Bob Dylan. Leonard Cohen lyrics are poetry, it's great stuff, and Paul Simon writes great lyrics too.
"These are artists whose lyrics you can actually read without the music."
Taylor, though, is also renowned for his live performances; connecting his lyrics to an audience from the stage in a quiet but captivating way, using his guitar as well as his voice to tell a story.
"It [performing live] really is the thing that, if I was meant to do anything, it's that. Being a performing musician is my anchor, it's the thing that tethers me, mostly, it's as real as this life gets," he says.
"You can really get lost in the popular culture and confused about who you are or how important you are, but if you focus on your craft, on what it is you do, that is reliably real. It can save you from that maddening world of being turned into a product and being sold.
"If you're lucky enough to be given something you can do in this life that sustains you, it's best to just focus on that and be there for that process. The rest of it comes and goes.
"Looking at it like I have a trade, that's been the best way to approach it, I think."
HOME SWEET HOME
Although he loves (lives) to perform and travel, Taylor is just as happy these days to be at home in Massachusetts with wife Kim and their two pugs.
"They're right here with me now. You can probably hear them in the background. Here you go, listen to her."
He brings the phone close to the dogs and I can hear a soft snorting, snuffling, grunting sound.
"I'm a little bit worried about leaving them - I've been home for an unusually long stint and we're pretty seriously bonded here, me and these little pups. They'll be fine of course, but I will miss them terribly.
"You know, we anthropomorphise about dogs and assume that we know what's going on emotionally in their minds, but who really knows?"
JOSH PYKE
Australian singer-songwriter Josh Pyke is opening for Taylor at his a day on the green tour concerts alongside fellow Australian artist Ella Hooper. Pyke hit the ground running in 2007 with the release of his debut album Memories and Dust, going on to win four ARIA Awards and releasing another five top 10 albums .. and counting.
He says he was "very excited and honoured to get the nod" to support Taylor on tour.
"Like most music lovers my age, I first heard James Taylor as a kid through my parents' record collection," he says.
"I was really into the '70s singer-songwriters like Taylor and Jackson Browne, even early Billy Joel. The storytelling element definitely hooked me in, sitting in the front room where the stereo was and reading the lyrics from the vinyl cover. It's a great memory.
"I think James Taylor has added meaningful and lasting work to the canon of storytelling that exists in the world, which is huge.
"The fact that he's playing these big shows 50-odd years since Sweet Baby James came out is a testament to the strength of that contribution.
"We need stories. We need art that leaves us with more questions than answers, and Taylor has done that at the same time as he popularised solo singer-songwriters.
"Playing these sorts of shows is a gift for any artist, but I'm especially excited to play to an audience that is a little outside my demographic but who I know appreciate the craft of songwriting. I can't wait."
ELLA HOOPER
Hooper was still a teenager when she was "unearthed" by triple j and scored her first number one with the Killing Heidi single Mascara on her 17th birthday. Their debut album, Reflector, entered the ARIA charts at number one, spending six weeks on top, going five-times platinum and winning four ARIA Awards, including album of the year and best group.
At 18, Hooper became the first woman to be awarded APRA's Songwriter of the Year. After releasing three hit albums with Killing Heidi, she embarked on a solo career.
Hooper says she was "gobsmacked" to be asked to support Taylor on tour.
"It's not a gig I ever thought I'd get, but the more I lean into my own singer-songwriter roots and put them to the front of my career, it's amazing how the gigs that celebrate that and see that in me are coming along. I'm thrilled as it's a real honour," she says.
I ask when it was that she first heard Taylor's music.
"It was probably on a sunny afternoon in Violet Town growing up," she replies.
"My parents were very fond of the '60s and '70s greats of songwriting - Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Van Morrison and of course Carole King and James Taylor! Lyrics always stick out to me, I am all about them.
"I think James Taylor has been the soundtrack to so many people's lives, and has provided the chilled tunes we all need sometimes when life is overwhelming. I think he personifies the acoustic singer-songwriter type, not pushing a point or beating you over the head with anything, just offering his very poetic, very human approach."
- An Evening with James Taylor and His All Star Band, with special guests Josh Pyke and Ella Hooper, Wednesday April 24 at Sydney's ICC Theatre and April 28 at Centennial Vineyards, Bowral (express return bus service from Canberra available). Tickets on sale now.
