I first met Tommy in 1975, just after I moved here. We were both at an open mic night at The Roxy coffeeshop. He was still in his teens and I'd been warned about his outstanding ability. When I watched him take a little hand lettered sign out of his case which read "Tommy Emmanuel, Australia's Premier Guitarist" and set it up on the piano I knew this guy was serious. He then blew the room away.
I worked with Tommy often over many years, mostly doing sessions in Sydney. I also opened for him at many shows and he's one of the players who endorses my book
PlaneTalk. He introduces me as 'The World's best
slide guitarist', so how can I not love the guy?
How can he be as good as he is? Well, one day we did a session together and he asked me for a lift home as his car was out of order. I said sure and when we got to my car, I started loading all my guitars into the trunk (boot) ... Tommy was taking his guitar out of its case, to my amazement, then sat in the passenger seat and played us all the way back to his house! He just never stops playing, he loves it that much.
His brother Phil is just as good, in a rockier, louder, way. Together, they're mindblowing. They played the closing ceremony of the Olympics here in 2000.
Like Keith Urban, we all miss him down here, since he moved to Nashville.