To most people, Michael Gudinski was the larger-than-life character standing next to Ed Sheeran, Kylie Minogue or Bruce Springsteen as they launched their Australian tours.
He was the public face of Frontier Touring, the company he founded back in 1979. The hyper-passionate man who was just as comfortable negotiating a million dollar business deal to bringing Taylor Swift to Australia as he was chatting to the punters in the audience at the concerts he'd worked all hours to make a reality.
Dad loved to call himself a punters' pal and that he was — he was just as excited as the fans because after all he was a true music fan himself. He lived and breathed it.
He thrived on seeing the joy people got from music, the same joy that inspired him to leave school at 17 (much to the horror of his parents), start at the bottom rung of the then infant music industry and quickly work his way to the top, putting Australian music on the map and giving it the recognition it deserved.
He also created Mushroom Records — the groundbreaking music label that would sign Kylie Minogue, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes, Vance Joy and the Temper Trap among countless others, and then export their music to the planet.
Dad was so influential in the music world; his passion was unbeatable. He was honoured with a statue of himself outside Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Sadly, he never saw this but I know what that would mean to him. He would be chuffed.
The ARIA Awards named an award category after him to acknowledge his passion for discovering and nurturing new Australian music.
He was so many things to so many people - but to me Michael Gudinski was my Dad, my biggest inspiration, my biggest champion, always the one to tell me not to underestimate myself and believe in myself, a dedicated father, kind, fun and loving, no matter what was going on, how busy he was or what time zone he was in he would always call numerous times a day even just to say a quick 'I love you'.
Dad passed away suddenly in 2021. Just writing these words still send a shiver down my spine, it's a loss I’m still making sense of and still navigating, and I'm sure I always will be. It also happened to be on the day of my 33rd birthday — Dad was superstitious when it came to numbers, something we shared, I still to this day wonder what the meaning may be? Or was it just a terrible coincidence?
The outpouring of love and grief was both overwhelming and heartbreaking: that immense feeling of support from so many people who respected, loved and admired Michael Gudinski. And while the support was huge and so appreciated, nothing mattered or made me feel less alone, as I'd just lost my precious dad.
I spoke at his public memorial, something I found incredibly difficult particularly still in those early grieving stages of shock and denial but I wanted to let people know how proud I was of my Dad and how important he was not only to me as a father but to my children as a grandfather.
Dad will forever be irreplaceable in the music world and his story of success and the all consuming drive that never left him is one that really needs to be shared and documented forever.
This was what really motivated me to launch a new podcast titled Gudinski, a five part series that examines his life and career in depth — from someone who had a front row seat for a lot of it.
I wanted to tell my father's story for my three kids to be able to listen to it.
His journey is fascinating and inspirational. It's filled with incredible highs and some devastating lows and a soundtrack provided by some of the world's greatest superstars.
Because my father had such a unique job, I had an upbringing that probably seems different to most people. I was taken on a Jimmy Barnes tour when I was only 6 weeks old. When I was too young to realise she wasn’t just a guest at a family lunch, I asked Madonna to give me a piggyback up a hill. Which she did.
I shared my family birthday dinner at our house with the band Garbage one year, among many other interesting social events.
To me these interactions were pretty normal, but it did start to dawn on me as a teenager that it isn't super common to hang out with Kylie Minogue or have Billy Joel over for Sunday lunch when he's in town.
I’d always written songs, and my parents always encouraged my creativity. I joined the Mushroom family in 2004 and got to experience the life of an artist. I was juggling being a pop artist with finishing my final year of high school.
It was a wild ride. The song you wrote in your bedroom is suddenly in the Top 10 and you’re hearing it on the radio. Or it’s sound tracking the latest drama on Home and Away and you’re sharing stages with people like the Backstreet Boys or Jennifer Lopez.
Later I got to create the soundtrack for the teen drama H20: Just Add Water — which revolved around three teenage girls who happen to be mermaids with superpowers. H20 has been having a resurgence on Tik Tok lately, it’s become a cult classic.
I'm still behind a microphone, but these days it's in the world of podcasting.
After becoming a mother, my best friend Sophie Panton and I launched a podcast called Talking In Common.
We wanted to build a community where parents could be part of a conversation. It’s a podcast about parenthood but it goes much deeper, and I love being able to share my experiences and learnings from others.
The Gudinski podcast is obviously incredibly personal for me but even I learned things from the people we speak to about their dealings with my dad.
He missed out on signing bands who'd have No.1 hits in America, he learnt some tough lessons in the concert promoting arena where one failed tour can be a seven-figure mistake.
But Dad would learn from those setbacks and was always thinking about what was going to come next — even when one of his artists had a No.1 album or he’d just sold one million tickets for an Ed Sheeran tour of Australia and New Zealand.
There's a funny story about that tour. Dad wanted to give Ed a gift to acknowledge the tour. He suggested a Rolex watch, but Ed wanted a life-size statue of dad, honestly when dad told me this at the time I thought he was joking, it had to have an open hand so he could put a glass of red wine in there. He wanted to put it in the pub he'd built in his house and be able to raise a cheers or have a drink with Dad at any given time.
The statue is in there and Ed will go and have a drink with Dad whenever he releases a record or to mark a special occasion. Dad and Ed became great friends, and spent many amazing times together. Ed and his family have become a very special part of our family.
Dad was eccentric, passionate, unique, fiercely loyal, stubborn yet a huge softie at heart and I feel proud to call him my father. He loved his family and I cherish all the moments we had together.
He would always tell me you’ve got to be a leader not a follower and he sure was a leader.
Dad, the incredible legacy you have left behind is a true testament to you, and you earned every bit of it.
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