Who Is Dude Z Lovett.. ???

Where did he come from???  What is his music all about???

Well I guess I should start at the beginning.  I was Born in Gympie, Queensland Australia. 

Yes that makes me an Aussie, and a very PROUD Aussie to boot!!  Even prouder of the fact, both my parents and theirs' also where born here in the best country in the world. The Lucky Country! AUSTRALIA.. Hey, Hey!!!  Or should I say... Hey Ho Hey! ( Hey Cookie - ;-) ) 

Anyway enough of the patriotic stuff, I sure everyone who knows me, knows' how much I love this great country of mine, so back to the story..

As a youngster my Dad was a farmer.  A Butcher by Trade, A horse breaker / Cattle Breeder / Small Crops Producer / etc / etc.  I was very lucky to have a child hood that started out on the farm .  Dad used to grow pumpkins, and watermelons, then later, Sorghum and Barley as the farms got Bigger and Bigger.

I moved from Gympie to Bundaberg as Dad pursued his Goal of Owning the Biggest Farm in the Country (lol). Then after a time we moved to the City.  A little place called Wacol. Just on the out skirts of Brisbane where Mum and Dad had bought their first home. What was left of an old Vineyard, it was a two story house and a little cottage. The Important part was there was heaps of land.

We where close to Brisbane, and just a little closer to a growing Ipswich City.  Dad would work as a Butcher in the day, then train his horses in the after noon.  Dad used to lease a heap of land where he used to run horses and cattle, ( Now known as Forest Lake.) basically us kids had it all, a farm life with the city on our door step. 

There was Mum and Dad and Us Four Kids, Dude / Kerry / Lenny / and Susan.

It was a fantastic time in our lives.  Because Dad was a horse trainer we always had heaps of horses, which ment heaps of friends.  All the Kids in the neighborhood would come over to ride our horses and Dad was only to happy to let them because as soon as the horses where quiet he would sell them and replace them with a few brumbys that needed to be broken in.  That's how my brother and I became confident horse riders.  As soon as a horse was quiet, he'd be gone and you'd get a new one! lol

Mum on the other hand was an Entertainer. Not just an Entertainer to all the kids from the neighborhood that we used to bring home for dinner, and not just an entertainer to all the Mums that would be over for coffee and to watch Days of our Lives, but an Entertainer in the true sense of the word.  A singer with a band she would perform in Pubs and Clubs in and around Brisbane almost every weekend.  Mum even went in a talent quest against Keith Urban when he was just a kid..

As Mum's Career moved forward she went from being the lead singer in Bands, to becoming a Solo artist.  This is where she would be a special guest Artist and do a 40min Cabaret Floor show.  Sometimes appearing at three to four venues in one night.

At this stage I was about 12 years old, I guess.  I remember us kids running around outside a venue at the Ipswich show grounds while mum was inside doing her thing.  I had just made a couple of new friends and all of a sudden we were loaded into the car to head off to the next gig.

So now Mum is starting to move onward and up ward with her career as an entertainer, and doesn't the next logical step,  goes into the studio to work on her first album.  After a lot of days and nights in the studio It finally get's released.  With an indipendant record label, and not much radio air play Mum had to get back out doing gigs to promote her album, and start making some money back.  Here we go again... lol

Somewhere about this time I had been learning some guitar by jamming with one of mums muso friends "Deadly Dave" after their practice sessions.  Deadly would show me a couple of things and then I would practice until the next week when I would learn something new..  One thing led to another and the next thing you know, I'm in the band!  12years old and I'm a rhythm guitarist in a band doing gig's all over the countryside. That's where it all started for me.

So we did a few gig's around the place, and next thing I know we were moving again.  Dad had signed up to a Bigger Farm at a little place called Mutdapilly. So it was  a new school with only two classes, 1234 & 567.  A new two story farm house, milking cows for fresh milk after school, and a new addition to our lives a pig pen !

The funny part about this farm was we had no electricity!  We had a generator that Dad would put on for a couple of hours in the evenings, but generally it was a kerosene fridge, kerosene lanterns and you just had to pretty much entertain yourself!

We did a lot of horse riding over the next couple of years, and of course my guitar playing improved to! Mum decided to do a bit of a tour out west but was having trouble finding muso's that were willing to live out of a suit case.  So the band was scaled back to a three piece with a drum machine.

It was Mum Singing and Deadly and Myself on guitar.  This was when the pressure was on for me to start singing.  I had been doing backing vocals with some harmonies for a while but mum was starting to pressure me into singing out front.  I had been singing around the farm, and in the car, but never at a gig in front of an audience... I was nervous as hell!  I was shaking like a leaf, but I did it, and haven't looked back..

The band grew to a five piece and we decided to hit the road again to promote mums album.  This time with a truck and caravan.  Four Kids a five piece band a truck a caravan and a car, all loaded to the hilt we headed north for a tour to rocky then west to emerald.  I remember us kids all had a fold up bed and a small suitcase. we would set up the beds in the annex of the caravan.  A different town every week.  we were pretty close back then one of my favorite memories was the truck pulled over on the side of the road with the van in tow and mum cooking on the fire with all of us around singing and laughing..

I know it sounds like a line from a Merle Haggard song, but I swear it's true!

We're on the move again, further west.  This time dad had landed a job as a property manager for a 125,000 acre farm.

decided to take her show on the road.