Legendary singer/songwriter Paul Kelly on the Adelaide Crows, Cricket & Luc Longley

Paul Kelly is arguably Australia’s greatest and most enduring songwriter, and 2018 was yet another big year for him. Last month Kelly released a new studio album, Nature, which was a follow-up to his 2017 full-length Life Is Fine.

Notably, Life Is Fine had debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, giving Paul his first ARIA #1 album in his long career. In addition, at last year’s ARIA Awards — Australia’s equivalent to the GRAMMY— Kelly took home Best Male and Best Adult Contemporary Album, along with Best Cover Art and Engineer Of The Year. These results gave Kelly a remarkable 14 ARIA Awards out of 51 total ARIA nominations from over the years.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Kelly by phone -- the full audio will be part of a future edition of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast, thanks to PureGrainAudio -- about his love of sports. More on Paul Kelly can be found online at www.paulkelly.com.au.

Are you a sports guy, or do you have any surprising hobbies that more people should know about?

Paul Kelly: I love sports, I play football, Australia loves football. I swim, I ride the bike... I love swimming, I live near the sea here in St. Kilda in Melbourne... before talking to you this morning I've been on a ride and a swim. That's sort of... yeah, a hobby. What else? I like to read, everything else is pretty normal, I like to read, go to the movies, eat with friends.

Do you follow any teams besides yourself playing sports?

Paul Kelly: Our football team here is The Crows, which is the Adelaide Crows. I grew up in Adelaide, although I don't live there anymore, my football team is the Crows so I follow them. I also like cricket, Test Cricket, so I'll follow Australia in that, and generally, the main countries we play are India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England.

Test Cricket has always been a game I love. It's a five-day game, it can end with no result, which I love. It has many twists and turns. There are other forms of cricket, now, shorter forms from one-day cricket to T20 Cricket, but they don't interest me as much. So Test Cricket I like, the five-day game.

Interesting, sounds like I have to do some homework on that end.

Paul Kelly: When I was in the States, I did a house-swap with some friends and stayed and I liked football, American football. American friends started educating me on some of the finer points which I've now forgotten, but I really liked that too. I really like Basketball too. I remember we were touring, when did the Bulls have that big run?

'92 to '95, I think.

Paul Kelly: Yeah, we were over in the States around that time and I remember we did a show at Schuba's in Chicago, a great room, listening room and Luc Longley came along, the Australian basketballer who was playing for the Bulls at the time.

He actually helped us load out, which is hilarious. Everyone in the club was very excited that Luc was there. I remember, once we got to know Luc we got very interested in following the Bulls during that time.

I definitely remember Luc Longley. I think he was also on the Minnesota Timberwolves as well. I didn't realize he was Australian.

Paul Kelly: Yeah, after that he went to Minnesota. Yeah, he's from West Australia.

I'm learning new things every day.

Paul Kelly: We've got a photo of us, you know, because they're so tall these guys, Luc especially? I think we're standing on the steps, and he's on the street, and he's still taller than us.

So in closing, any last words for the kids?

Paul Kelly: The kids! Trust your instincts, and you don't have as much time as you think you do, how about those two things to say?

That will work.