Tommy Emmanuel
It seems that some of us go through life wondering what we’ll be when we grow up. For
Tommy Emmanuel, there evidently was no
doubt. He was exposed to all kinds of music,
even though he lived in the outback, or bush
country, of Australia. He recalls never even seeing a city until he was 15 years old. Tommy’s
older brother Phil began playing lead or “
melody guitar,” and when Tommy was four years old
his mother bought him his first guitar.
It was a Maton brand, the Aussie equivalent
of America’s Fender. Bill May and his brother Reg formed the Maton company (from
the words “May tone”) to make guitars for
the land down under shortly after WWII.
Tommy still plays a Matone guitar to this
day. His mother showed him a few chords,
and soon he was playing with her, then he
began playing rhythm chords to support
brother Phil’s lead playing. Tommy’s mother
and father both encouraged the development of musical talents in their kids. Tommy
recalls his father, an engineer and mechanic, as a man who could fix anything—but
he was crazy about music, too. From him,
Tommy learned that life was about work,
and about keeping things going, maintaining the things they depended on and making sure they didn’t break down.
INTERVIEW BY JOHN SOUTHERN PHOTOS FROM A PHOTO ESSAY BY WILLIAM ELLIS
Tommy Emmanuel’s story is an inspiring one, to be
sure, but it’s also a story about inspiration. He is one of
the very select few to have been designated a “Certified
Guitar Player” by the late, great Chet Atkins—the very
man who had been the greatest source of inspiration to
him as a young boy. When Emmanuel speaks of those who
inspired him, his tone is one of gratitude, but it is also
clear he is thankful for the opportunity to inspire others.
Tommy and his siblings, Chris on drums, Phil
on lead guitar and Virginia on lap steel, went
on the road when they were very young. In
the beginning, their father was their tireless
promoter and stage announcer. After he
passed away, Australian country music legend Buddy Williams took the kids under his
wing, until the child welfare department put
a halt to it. At age 15, forgoing more formal
education, Tommy went to Sydney to pursue
his musical career. He began playing in clubs
and working on recording sessions, playing on jingles and eventually doing session
recordings for Air Supply and Men At Work.
For the last four years, he’s played about 340
concerts a year, all over the world—a rigorous schedule, but his love of performing and
experiencing other cultures keeps his spirits
up and his life an adventure. It’s the playing,
he reports, that keeps him going and rejuvenates him. “When the going gets hard,”
he says, “you drag your ass to the finish line,
because you have the faith that that’s where
