Joe Camilleri still can't look at a ferret.
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As a six-year-old, freshly migrated from Malta, The Black Sorrows lead singer would pile into his dad's Morris Minor and drive the "forever" distance from Carlton to Kyneton and catch the pests.
He's never been the same.
"One put its teeth through my hand and wouldn't let go. They're just vicious creatures," Mr Camilerri said.
Almost 70 years later, despite the fear, Mr Camilleri would relocate from the city to Kyneton on a whim while out for a coffee, settling into quieter surroundings.
"I'm 75, you know. I need slow bowling now," Mr Camilleri said.
"I can't see the ball fast enough."
Mr Camilleri and his Black Sorrows bandmates are heading to Rochester on Saturday, October 14 to play at the Rochella music festival in support of victims from the October 2022 flood event which devastated the town.
A prominent figure on the Australian music scene since the 1970s, Mr Camilleri is still writing and recording music from his base in Kyneton where he also enjoys tending his garden, and staring at the tree he "fell in love with" when he bought the house.
"Tumbleweeds, you know, are a very American thing, but [Kyneton] feels like that on Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, nobody in sight," Mr Camilleri said.
"But it's just a sweet life. I love my garden. I'm in a bit of a valley, so the roses and daffodils come out a bit late. I know all about these things now."
Used to music charts and ARIA awards, Mr Camilleri's neighbours serve as critics now.
He practices saxophone and piano at home, receiving a delivery of cookies when they approve, or a jesty "we've been enjoying your struggle" if not.
Despite his cottagey surroundings, Mr Camilleri is "still punching the clock", speaking to the Advertiser while Melbourne bound on the Calder Freeway, the road he spends around 60,000km on a year.
He said he puts the pressure on himself.
"I make my own demands on myself," Mr Camilleri said of his latest stint in the recording studio.
"I didn't make just one album. I've recorded two albums."
The personal demands mirror Mr Camilleri's past, darting between musical projects ever since he bought a $32 saxophone as a teen, going on to form Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons and "relentlessly" touring the country for three decades.
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Mr Camilleri keeps going because he loves his job, but he is still working it all out.
"I'm just trying to find a way through the puzzle of my life," he said.
"Your body is failing you in a way, but as long as your mental state is good and you you've got a heartbeat, you're still sort of in the game."
Age and life coming to its pointy end is more apparent to Mr Camilleri now. He said that comes with new experiences too.
"The guy who's gonna produce this record has got three to six months to live, so I'm going to New York just to say goodbye," he said.
"I've never done that before.
"I'm not a drinker, but he's a whiskey drinker, so I'll drink whiskey with him."
Music and sorrow work together, according to Mr Camilleri. A line of a song becoming a mantra, a simple thing that makes you feel better.
"[Music] is a healer. It does many things to many different people," he said.
"I can see it when a crowd sings back to me."
And as much as he sees it in the crowd, it is the music that has kept Mr Camilleri going, and the reason he still goes to the recording studio today.
"It was always about the music. And that's why I'm [still] making music," he said.
"I don't need to make music, I make music because I need it, not because there's a need for it.
"Keep doing it till you can't do it. Keep doing it because it'll give you the satisfaction, the pain, the misery, the struggle, all those things that you find attractive."
- Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows are headling ROCHELLA, at Rochester Recreation Reserve on October 14. Tickets here.
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