TOMMY EMMANUEL
“ IF YOU PLAY IN THE THUMB-AND-FINGER STYLE, THEN YOU DON’ T NEED A BAND. YOU DON’ T NEED ANYONE ELSE. YOU CAN JUST BE TOTALLY SELF-CONTAINED.”
land influences from the Australian outback and Aboriginal sounds? You know, Australia’ s my home. It’ s my roots, my country, and so it’ s always there. It doesn’ t matter where I am— my home is behind my eyes. And if there are Australians in the audience, I can go into something and you’ ll hear them yell out, and only they know what I’ m referring to. I’ m sure it was the same for Chet Atkins when he went to places like Japan and South Africa and met other Americans there. He’ d go into Wildwood Flower, and they just lost their minds. When I became a US citizen, I said to the person presiding that I love this country and it’ s nurtured me all my life. And I meant that. In a way, it’ s fed me everything. It has given me unbelievable music and people to follow and to try and emulate and to learn from. It’ s given me great sounds, great guitars, great records. When I was a kid, anything that said“ Made in USA” was by far the best in the world. The first music I heard was Jimmy Rodgers and Hank Williams. So that’ s where I started. That’ s why I’ m at home in Nashville, Music City, which is my home. And I’ m at home here in England with my children and family. And I’ m at home in Australia as well. It’ s a very important part of my whole life— who I am and how I ended up being the way I am is the influence of all the great artists that I tried to emulate when I was young.
Let’ s shift gears a bit. How do you balance the skill and technique of guitar with entertaining people at the same time? When you walk on stage, your job is to entertain people, and you can do it— you find whatever way you can to do that. I use the elements of my skills, my experiences, the song choices and arrangements. I use everything I can. Stuff like, I’ ll suddenly play a drum solo on the guitar and then bang my head on the mi-
PHOTO CREDIT JESS GLEESON
70 | SPRING 2026