Photos: Mighty Madman Media
Last month, Johnny Osbourne ventured to Australia and New Zealand for what turned out to be his first-ever visit to the region. The week-long tour, presented by Grindin.net and LargeUp, with support from Federation Sound’s DJ Max Glazer, took the Dancehall Godfather from The Lair at Sydney’s Metro Theatre to K Road in Auckland, where the tour climaxed with a daytime performance on a flatbed truck during a family festival on New Zealand’s infamous late-night strip.
It really brought Jamaican dancehall vibes directly to the other side of the world,” Glazer says of the streetfront performance.” Speaking on the tour as a whole, Grindin’s Sam Dutch, the tour’s organizer, tells us, “the highlight was just seeing how much impact his music has had over here, and people driving hours or flying in to a gig just to see him live showed that.”
Daily Operation sat down with Johnny at the tail-end of his visit, for an exclusive video documenting the trip. Along with performance footage from the Sydney show, the reggae veteran offers some insight into how he got his start, his approach to live performance, and how he’s remained relevant five decades into his career. “I just take the old school with the new school and just make it one big school, and that’s mi rule,” Johnny explains. Words to live by.
