Colin Hay on the rise and fall of Men at Work, starting over as a solo artist

To say that Colin Hay's musical career has been a long and winding road would be an understatement. In just over a decade, the Scottish-born musician went from an unknown musician playing folk clubs in Melbourne, Australia, to fronting early '80s hitmakers Men at Work, to languishing in Los Angeles after his solo record deal fell through.

The “Down Under” and the “Who Can It Be Now?” The singer discovered that the fame of being part of a multi-platinum band did not easily transfer to a solo career. Men at Work broke up after (or during, depending on how you look at it) the recording of their 1985 album, two hearts. Hay regrouped and released solo albums for Columbia Records (1987s). Finding Jack) and MCA Records (1990s walking children). Disappointing sales caused MCA Records to fire Hay, leaving him without a record label, manager or booking agent. “No one was really interested in anything I was doing,” he says. Billboard's Behind the setlist podcast.

People began to notice his solo work, little by little. In 1992, owner Mark Flannigan asked Hay to play at a new Los Angeles venue, Largo. Hay took the stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a body of work from three Men at Work albums and two solo albums. The shows were a hit with local audiences and Hay became a frequent guest. “Largo was instrumental” in building the next phase of his career, Hay says. “It's like a home, really, where I can be myself and play whatever I want.”

Nearly 40 years old at the time, Hay says he knew record labels weren't interested in him despite having No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 (“Who Can It be Now?”) and 1983. (“Down Under”) and an album, Business as usualwhich spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. So Hay decided to find his own audience and take the one-man show perfected on Largo on tour. It was a big adjustment for a musician whose previous band dominated radio and MTV in the early '80s and won a Grammy for best new artist in 1983. “Thirty years ago, there was hardly anyone there,” he says of those early solo performances. . “There may be 30 people, 40 people. Not long before he had been playing to about 150,000 people.”

Those early solo exhibitions were a valuable step in creating a second career as a solo singer-songwriter. At first, in front of small crowds of 30 or 40 people, Hay discovered he had a knack for telling stories that held the audience's attention between songs. “I think people in the audience were a little embarrassed by me,” he says in a Scottish accent softened by his upbringing in Australia. “I could see that kind of questioning look on their faces, like, 'Why is he doing this?' So I started talking to people because they were just there, you know? Then I started talking to them and telling them what had happened to me. And as I did, I noticed people getting a little closer.”

A big break came in 2002 when Hay appeared on an episode of the television show. Exfoliants. Through a mutual friend, Hay met Zach Braff when the actor landed the lead role. “He said, 'I'll see if I can get some of your songs on the TV show,'” Hay recalls. “I didn't think about any of that.” But Braff kept his promise by bringing Hay's music to the show's creator, Bill Lawrence, who ended up writing an episode called “My Overkill” in which Hay performs Men at Work's 1983 hit, “Overkill.” “That was very… that was a huge thing for me, especially playing live,” Hay says. “It had a huge impact in terms of my live audience, the people who discovered me watching that show.”

A year later, Hay was performing in Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, a concert he performed on and off over the years and consistently since 2018. Hay was introduced to the Beatles as a child through his father, the owner of a music store in his native Scotland. After a decade rebuilding his solo career, Hay shared the stage with the Beatles' drummer. “When you turn around you think, 'Wow, I'm playing with Ringo!' Hay exclaims. “'I was in the fucking Beatles!'”

More than three decades later, Hay continues to entertain audiences with his solo acoustic shows filled with anecdotes and wry humor. Venues have grown considerably from sparsely filled clubs to packed small theaters and performing arts centers. He also tours under the name Men at Work, although he is the only original member. His vast catalog of solo albums hasn't been a commercial success, Hay notes, constant touring has been the key to taking his shows from 30 or 40 people in the early '90s to about 1,000 a night today.

“The success I've really achieved has been going out and playing live. So it's something valuable to me. And also, I kind of treasure the audience because, people say that a lot, but they actually saved me in a lot of ways. Because even when I started going out and playing live in the early '90s, people could sense my slight sense of desperation about what the fuck was going on. And they would just encourage me [to] “Just keep going.”

In fact, Hay has moved on. Nearly 50 years after Hay began playing in Melbourne folk clubs, he says he is in his natural state as a traveling troubadour with a guitar in hand. “All I do is try to make sense of the time I have left and enjoy it as much as I can, and also hopefully give people a good night out,” says Hay. “I think it's a useful thing.”

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