It’s the perfect title for a song, at least that’s what I’m thinking from the passenger seat as country music superstar Brad Cox glides his Mack Anthem down the highway, headed for Byron Bay. It’s the last ever Bluesfest, closing out a momentous 35-year run for the Easter weekend festival, so ROADBOSS hitched a ride with ‘Coxy’ to see how the rockstar rolls.
What’s a Golden Guitar-winning country music superstar doing heading to a blues festival, in a Mack truck? We’ll get to the truck, but first, this isn’t Brad’s first Bluesfest appearance.
You see, Brad’s uniquely versatile and his fanbase is diverse. He can belt out country ballads to a 30,000-person crowd at CMC Rocks, or get the mosh pumping with rock anthems at a contemporary festival like Bluesfest – he’s even been nominated for an ARIA.
We’re in stop-start traffic as far as the eye can see, heading south towards the Gold Coast, sandwiched into the sprawl as city-dwellers escape for the Easter long-weekend.
We’re also being honked at and yelled at pretty frequently, as fans – of which he has plenty – spot the Brad Cox billboard on wheels, only to find that it’s actually him in the driver’s seat.
“You do get a bit of that,” Brad laughs. “I’ve got a driver now and the first time he did a run in this Mack he couldn’t believe the attention he got!”
Brad’s no stranger to the cabin of a Mack; the first truck he got into was a 1987 Mack Super-Liner, an old V8 that’s still running grain around the Riverina. Images: Thomas Wielecki
A truck might feel like an unusual place to get to know a rockstar, but Brad’s no stranger to the cabin of a Mack – introduced to trucks on rural properties around Australia.
“The first truck I got into was a 1987 Mack Super-Liner, an old V8 that’s still running grain around the Riverina,” he tells me.
“So I learnt to drive that on a farm – that truck scared the whole district, being so loud and obnoxious. It actually used to be owned by the Johnson Brothers in Tambo, I think.”
That hardworking Super-Liner, Brad tells me, was in the video clip for ‘Water on the Ground’ – a song about life on the land and the toll a drought can take. The old Mack runs up a dirt road half-way through the clip, the sound of its V8 absent as Brad sings about a lack of water on the ground.
Years later, Brad would again find himself in the cabin of a Mack, running livestock between paddocks late into the night – only this truck tested his skill as an operator.
“There were a few nights carting wieners in that old Mack,” Brad says, shaking his head, “where I had to ring up and get the Toyota to come down and drive in front me of.
Brad can belt out country ballads to a 30,000-person crowd at CMC Rocks, or get the mosh pumping with rock anthems at a contemporary festival like Bluesfest. Images: Thomas Wielecki
“It was after dark and I’m on a 60-odd-kilometre dirt track with no headlights, no trailer brakes or anything. You get pretty good at using the gears.”
More recently, Brad found his way into the cabin of this Anthem, and it’s a hell of a lot nicer than the trucks he cut his teeth in. The partnership came about by chance, after the team at Mack Trucks Australia reached out with an offer Brad couldn’t refuse, and having driven mostly Macks, the Bulldog was a perfect match.
After the Mack Trucks Australia deal was inked out, Brad had the idea for his wildly popular ‘Everything I’ve Got’ tour. Basically he’d pack up his life, leave his beloved patch of dirt in Yepoon, and take to the roads in the Mack.
Another hour-or-so on the road and we’re finally pulling up at the festival site, arriving late on Thursday afternoon after spending the better part of five hours in traffic. Yep, almost five hours to cover off 180km.
We’re finally at Bluesfest, so let the fun begin…
You don’t want to miss our road trip to Bluesfest with country music superstar Brad Cox, in the Winter Issue of ROADBOSS Magazine, out late June, so sign up for a complementary subscription here.
