Despite living on the other side of the world, Colin Hay has had Cobargo in his thoughts of late.
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The former frontman of Men At Work and world-renowned solo artist has called Los Angeles home for 30-plus years.
But a large part of his heart goes back to the land down under, where the Scottish-born singer spent his formative teen-into-twenty-something years, some of that on a parcel of land between Cobargo and Bermagui.
Last week Hay played a concert at the historic Lobero Theatre in California as part of a series of shows, proceeds of which will benefit the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Local paper the Santa Barbara Independent interviewed the singer-songwriter ahead of the show. Excerpts of that interview are republished here with permission.
Naturally, Hay has been especially concerned and compassionate regarding the devastating wildfires presently wreaking havoc in many parts of Australia.
EDITORIAL: Is this horror fire season finally over?
Fire in Australia engages many dimensions for Hay. Among the threatened and damaged areas is the south eastern coastal zone around the village of Cobargo, where Hay once owned a rugged slice of land - and where he actually wrote the mega-hit-to-be "Who Can It Be Now" in the late '70s.
"I always have beautiful memories from that time and that place," Hay said.
"It was a very important part of my life. I had a girlfriend called Linda, who became my first wife. We bought this piece of land up there in the late '70s. It was very extensive. It was bush land.
"My intention was always to avoid the real world as long as I possibly could.
"Linda and I would go down there as often as we could. There's nothing to do except play acoustic guitar.
"Cobargo was virtually decimated by the last fires, which took out a lot of the main street. I feel happy about contributing to that recovery fund. You just feel a little more connected when you feel it on a personal level."
Hay has found international success over decades - and continues to do so even now at 66. However, he still says he lives "a simple life".
"Yeah, it's pretty good, I have to say. I have a great, beautiful wife and a kind of a simple life, in a way, or as simple as we could make it. We've got a bunch of cool friends and I get to play music on a daily basis.
"The challenges are really more external, with what's happening politically or environmentally and so forth.
"There's a lot of horror going on in the world. But I temper that sometimes by reading Stephen Pinker and reading Enlightenment Now and getting his perspective on it, which is that if you just look at what's going on now, it's still an awful lot better than what was going on a thousand years ago.
"It's small steps forward, but they're forward, nonetheless."
