FOR more than seven decades he's been the much-loved, buck-toothed legend of Australian country music.
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Yet why Chad Morgan, who has written more songs than most of us have had hot breakfasts, has not been installed in the Australian ARIA Hall of Fame is a mystery.
And not least to Anna Rose, who has written the first full biography of the Sheik of Scrubby Creek and is pushing for him to be honoured.
"I think it's an absolute tragedy that he's got to the age of 90 and has not been put into the hall of fame. So many others have," Anna said.
"And I'm wondering how many of those have a 70-year career that's been exceptional. And he's known not just all over Australia but all over the world."
Anna found this out after she wrote the book, released earlier this year.
"One chap in America saw him on a movie many years ago sitting in the corner of this film set singing Nobody Else But Little Me.
"And he was totally captivated by this goofy looking guy with the guitar and the big grin.
"He just determined to find out as much as he could about him after that. So I sent him the book and he was absolutely thrilled to bits."
Another was a young man from Singapore who found out about it because his father was an "absolutely mad on Chad", Anna said.
"They're everywhere. You just never know where you're going to find them."
Beyond boundaries
Anna doesn't want to say which country music stars are supporting her push for Chad's entry into the hall of fame but there are some big names, indeed.
They also include music writers and critics who don't really have a country music background and but still revere his work.
"He crosses boundaries," Anna said. He even won huge praise from a serious classical music writer.
Anna recalls how when when Chad cut his classic song The Sheik of Scrubby Creek, it "knocked off all of the greats of the day off the top of the hit parade. People like Bing Crosby and Doris Day and all of that.
"He is so relatable, from bushies, who totally get what he's on about, to refined city folk who find him captivating in live performance.
She said had never seen anybody with such great audience control. "He commanded a mosh pit at the Airlie Beach Music Festival, for God's sake.
"I think they had something like 80-odd acts. They put Chad on at midday in the main arena. I'm was thinking, oh, there won't be too many for that.
"Well, as soon as it came time for Chad, all these people started pouring in, right up the front of the stage - just extraordinary.
"Then he comes out, yells like crazy into the microphone, they all laugh and, bang, he was into it.
"And that's how he operates. He's got it down pat. You do it all those years, you've got to be doing something right.
She said he does use some jokes he was telling years ago but it doesn't matter.
"It's just all in the delivery. It's how he puts it across and his timing and everything. He's just a master on this stage."
Fair dinkum
At the same time he is modest.
"He doesn't big-note himself. He doesn't even use his OAM he received some years ago.
"And very rarely will you see it even when he goes out because he doesn't want be a show-off or anything like that.
"That's Chad. He's a good old love."
Anna said she was raised on the "old red-and-green-label records with Chad and all of his mates".
She has vivid memories of Chad on Reg Lindsay's Country and Western Hour, where he was a regular "and old Colin 'Cuddles' Huddleston called the square dances".
While Anna's is the first full substantial book about Chad, he's the subject of an affectionate short documentary called I'm Not Dead Yet.
Giving back
He's still performing, mostly at nursing homes.
"He plays for the oldies, although he's probably the oldest one there, bless his heart. He sees it as a way of paying back his fans.
"He said a lot of those people in the nursing homes, they went to my concerts over the years. They bought my records."
Not that he's old in his ways. Anna said he is tech-savvy, spends a lot of time on the internet and had built comouters for his family from the ground up.
A love story
Chad's wife Joanie died in 2017. They were together for 30-odd years, having married in their 50s.
Anna said Joanie was his second wife.
"She was unhappily married to a cousin of Chad's who he didn't particularly get along with. And Joanie had been quite unhappy in this marriage for some time."
They'd met several times before, but never had much to do with each other, Anna said.
"But one night at his birthday party, Chad was full of high spirits, shall we say, and he walked across the room to Joanie.
"He grabbed her by the hand, sat down beside her and said, Joanie, I dunno how, I dunno where, and I dunno when, but I know you and I are going to be together one day. Then he kissed her on the hand and walked away.
"It was only about four days later, Joanie arrived at the local caravan park, the showground, where he was staying with her station wagon loaded to the hilt. And she said, 'I've been waiting for this. Let's go'."
They were together for about 30 years, and they were the happiest years of Chad's life, Anna said.
Today Chad lives in Caboolture with his son Chad junior, who is his official carer and a talented musician in his own right, Anna said.
"They have very much a similar voice. And Chad junior knows every one of his father's songs."
Anna said while he sings a lot of funny songs, he has a couple of pretty serious ones, like The Ballad of Bill and Eva.
She said it was based on his grandmother, who more or less raised him, Chad having been out of wedlock.
He loved his grandparents. "Later when touring with Slim Dusty and Joy and the like, they'd park their caravans and camp at Granny's yard."
Ooh, you ARE awful
Another song, Fatal Wedding, poked fun at all the tear-jerkers popular at the time.
It came about when Chad and Gordon Parsons were travelling with the Slim Dusty Show.
Later as they were enjoying a little tipple in their caravan, they got talking about these maudlin numbers.
"And Chad said, you know what, Gord? We're going to write the saddest song of them all. We're going to kill everyone off."
And so they did: the bride (at the altar), the bridegroom and the priest. Plus the hearse overturned and rain washed the whole town away.
Anna said: "They tossed a coin but Gordon said, 'Oh, you can record it, mate. You'll probably have more fun with it than me."
She said the Sheik is so loved and respected that the book has a chapter of photos people have snapped with him.
Some fans are especially die-hard.
"One fellow down in Tasmania has actually got a tattoo of Chad and he showed him, oh my gosh."
Anna said Chad was happy to be interviewed for the book.
"Some days we would do a little half hour session. We'd do it maybe one in the morning, one in the afternoon.
"Some days I'd go and say, 'Oh, I don't really feel like work today. How about we watch a movie?'
"We became very good friends. He's a lovely man."
And very much deserving of a place in the hall of fame.
Chad Morgan, 70 Years In The Making, by Anna Rose (AM Printing, Tamworth). RRP $49.95. To order, call 0409-514-933 or head to chadmorgan70years.com.au
