South African superstar Johnny Clegg has some competition in the family. His son Jesse has had two number one hits in South Africa.
The elder Clegg is no stranger to the charts. He is the biggest artist the country has produced. That sets him up wonderfully to pass on the family secrets.“We talk it a lot and I say ‘you are as good as your last album’. You just can’t rest on your laurels because you have had two number one hits on a Top 40 chart in South Africa,” Johnny tells Undercover News. “It is a much bigger game. It is pacing yourself. It is stamina. It is putting yourself at risk all the time and getting on with the writing. If you’ve got the songs, write them, put them away if you’ve got 20 or 30 songs you have written it makes it so much easier to do the next album”.
21-year old Jesse could be considered a veteran. He was six months old when he first went on tour with his father.
Last year he had a number one hit with ‘Today’ and a number one album with ‘When I Wake Up’.
“He is much more in a commercial rock genre,” Johnny says. “Nothing as exotic as his father. He is doing very well. He is very talented and a very good songwriter. He understands songwriting very, very profoundly. He understands harmony, chord and structure, arrangement, melody. He has just got it”.
Don’t expect a father and son duet though. “We have separated our careers very, very consciously,” he says.
Johnny Clegg will tour Australia and New Zealand in May and June
Dates are:
Perth: Thursday 21st May 2009 The Riverside Theatre, Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre
Melbourne: Monday 25th May 2009 Palais Theatre
Sydney: Tuesday 26th May 2009 Sydney State Theatre
Brisbane: Thursday 28th May 2009 QPAC Concert Hall
Wellington: Saturday 30th May 2009 St. James, Opera Hall
Auckland: Monday 1st June 2009 Auckland Town Hall, The Edge
