After more than half a century on the road performing across the length and breadth of the Country, Australian music icon John Williamson is looking to spend a little more time at home.

Next year will be see Williamson will celebrate his 52nd anniversary in the entertainment industry. Ahead of this milestone he has embarked on a national Winding Back tour as way of saying farewell to his regular touring schedule.

“It doesn't mean I'll stop performing,” said Williamson. “But certainly, I don't intend to be hitting the road as much in the future. So Winding Back is my way of saying that I'm not going to work quite so hard.”

It was 1970 when Williamson wandered into Richmond’s GTV9 studios with a guitar under his arm, little did he know that it would be the start of 50-plus-year career.

His performance of ‘Old Man Emu’, the first song John had ever written, on Channel Nine’s popular New Faces program resulted in a number one single and a record deal. Half a Century on, with 52 albums, over 5 million albums sold, thousands of shows performed, and honours including the ARIA Hall of Fame, an Order of Australia, 28 Golden Guitar Awards, and Australian Roll of Renown induction, it is easy to understand why the 75-year-old Williams is aiming for a less hectic schedule.

“I’d never had more than three weeks off for the past 50 years!” said Williams, who got a taste of a slower pace of life, during the forced hiatus due to COVID.

“I hadn't had such a break off. This property we've got up here —I just adore it and I'd never had a chance to be here for more than ten days, so ten months has been great. I've really got to know the place, we’ve got some heifers on the place now, I've been doing creative things and I haven't missed being on the road at all. I'm starting to get worried that if I don't start working soon, I'll forget how to do it!”

As a songwriter, Williams is proudly and unashamedly Australian. In November 2020, his patriotic anthem ‘True Blue’ was inducted into the National Film and Sound Archives ‘Sounds Of Australia’, recognising its significance.

He said he’s found the recent border closures between Australian states upsetting and it has inspired a new song, which he will be featuring as he tours the country.

“I wrote a song called ‘The Great Divide’ which I will do in the show coming up… this COVID has sort of broken the nation up a bit and I don't like that. My music is about us being Australian; it is not about being different states.

“I really I get angry with people who are a bit parochial about their state or whatever.  When you get around the country as much as I do, you become proudly Australian — as a whole. I don't like us being busted up. I was born in Victoria, created my career and fell in love with NSW as a farmer and as a songwriter and performer and now I'm living in Queensland. Australia is a huge country and there’s so much to take in, so much to be proud of. All my songs are aimed are all Australians.”

While he may be winding back next year after this final tour, Williamson is far from done performing.

“It is not the performing that I want to wind back it is the travelling. if I could snap my fingers and be on a stage I don't think I'd ever stop as long as I can do the job. I thought I'd be too old to do it by now, but I don't feel that way at all.  I've been practicing the guitar lately and it's still all there. As I said, as long as can do as good a job as I expect to do, I'll probably keep doing it — just maybe less of it.”

John Williamson will be returning to Orange on Friday February 12, performing at the Orange Civic Centre.

“It will be special for me to come out there, because it has been a while and it will be special because it will be green. I know there has been good rain and as an ex-farmer I find it hard to tour when there's droughts on,” said Williamson.

Tickets for John Williamson’s Winding Back tour at the Orange Civic Centre are available through Ticketek or phone 6393 8111.