Online Memorials Australia - Genealogy, Obituaries

A STATE funeral was held for Slim Dusty at 10.30am on Friday, September 26, 2003 at St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney.

Australia, and particularly the Australian music industry, is mourning the loss of its greatest name Slim Dusty the King of Australian Country Music.

Slim died at home in Sydney at 9.10am 19/9/2003 in the company of his wife and soulmate Joy McKean and his two children, Anne and David, after a lengthy battle with cancer.

For all his life, Slim¹s passion for Australia was reflected in the songs he sang about people and places all over the continent. With his wife, Joy McKean, Slim travelled millions of kilometres with his country music show, taking their music to every corner of the nation from major cities to remote Aboriginal communities.

Born David Gordon Kirkpatrick on June 13, 1927, at Kempsey, NSW, the superstar-to-be called himself ³Slim Dusty² for the first time at just 11 years of age in 1938. He wrote his first song The Way The Cowboy Dies the year before that and made his first, self-funded, recording just four years later in 1942... Song For The Aussies and My Final Song... little could he have known what was to be his destiny over the next 60 years as he became one of the nation¹s best known personalities and one of the most awarded Australians ever.

Slim was the first Australian to receive a Gold Record (still the only 78 rpm gold record in existence in this country), the first Australian to have an international record hit, and the first singer in the world to have his voice beamed to earth from space in 1983.

In his amazing career, Slim won 36 Golden Guitars (an achievement unlikely ever to be equalled), more Gold and Platinum Record Awards than any other Australian artist, Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Awards, including induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, video sales Platinum and Gold Awards, an MBE and Order of Australia for his services to entertainment, and he was one of the earliest inducted to the Country Music Roll of Renown.

Slim achieved national and international success in 1957 with his worldwide hit single A Pub With No Beer which became the first official Gold record achieved in Australia. And many famous songs and recordings followed right up to 2000 when he released his landmark 100th album Looking Forward Looking Back. This year Slim celebrated his 60th anniversary as a recording artist, all of them with EMI, amassing an amazing catalogue of 106 albums with estimated career sales of some six million, more than any other Australian in this country.

Slim Dusty played an active role in the Australian country music industry. In 1992 he was one of a small group who formed the Country Music Association of Australia becoming its founding President, serving in that position until his retirement in 2001.

In a special tribute, CMAA President John Williamson said Slim Dusty was a true Australian legend, a pioneer and would be sorely missed by Australia¹s country music family and his mountain of fans. See detailed statement following.

Australia salutes Slim Dusty an outstanding Australian a man who has helped shape the face and character of our nation.
SLIM

Slim Dusty was a true Australian legend. He was a pioneer and will be sorely missed by Australia`s country music family and his mountain of fans.

With Buddy Williams, Stan Coster and now the King of Country Music gone it is nearing the end of an era in Australian folklore. Smoky Dawson is still with us, and so is Chad Morgan and Shorty Ranger. Men who have been known as much for their hats as their music, and their hillbilly tags.

Slim was the voice that kept the link with "Banjo" and Henry Lawson. He was the star that our bush ballad writers could sing through. He was "the keeper of the flame" that crackled on a gidgee campfire. He sailed through the rock `n` roll era that nearly stole our identity. And when we sing Waltzing Matilda we will think of Slim around the campfire, outside the caravan that brought country music over gravel and dirt roads to all bush Australians. He was God to itinerant workers and truck drivers. He was God in aboriginal settlements.

What kept him going? I guess it was his love of recording another song and travelling with it around a wonderful land; the addiction I know only too well.

Slim`s intensely competitive nature I`m sure came from the old days. From the in-the-face battle between tents at the showgrounds, where success was measured by drawing a bigger crowd than the bloke down the line.

Slim showed me the strength of a simple Aussie ballad. No frills. As pure and as straight to the point as the characters he sang about. And in my opinion we must make sure we never lose the essence of how we describe true blue Aussies.

And to Joy McKean, the woman behind him; she will always be the tower that supported the icon. I hope she continues to write great songs like "Lights on the Hill". For she too, is an icon to be recognised. My heart is most heavy for her and the family.

Dusty (Kirkpatrick), Slim (David Gordon)