By Ali Ikram
He has played with everyone from Dragon to more recently being asked to help out completing Michael Jackson’s unreleased material.
Now Australian guitar hero Tommy Emmanuel is back in New Zealand for some concerts.
For the most part, Tommy Emmanuel does his talking with his guitar. But he can sum up everything he has learnt in one word: trust.
"If you are doing what you are born to do and you are true to your gift then you can trust that the universe will bring you everything to fulfil your destiny," he says.
Destiny came knocking early – when he heard Chet Atkins on Australian radio, Emmanuel turning pro at the tender age of seven.
"When I was a kid I could hear a song like The Beatles’ ‘Please Please Me’ and I knew it was in E. When I heard it I knew the guy was playing E. He was six years old.
Save for a couple of years at school in New South Wales, Emmanuel, now 57, has been on the road pretty much ever since.
It was Chet Atkins himself who bestowed on him the title “certified guitar player”, something only four musicians can claim.
Though even when you are born to do something, everyday life doesn't get any simpler – James Taylor summed it up best.
“He says they hunger for home but they cannot stay. They wait by the door, they stand and they stare. They're already out of there.
“That applied to me when I was married. I was on the road. I had been missing my family then I’d be looking out the window at the road and it was calling me. They hunger for home and cannot stay."
The piece he played for us is called ‘Hope Street’. It seemed a fitting title given these days he has come to accept playing 300 gigs a year is not just what he does but part of who he is.
"This life is a dilemma and it's your job to operate in that dilemma. It's taken my whole life to make peace with things that almost destroyed me.
"When you make peace with it it's a great day because you're free."
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