A Message to Lee Kernaghan

I admired Lee Kernaghan for the work he did in raising more than a million dollars for drought relief, an act that saw him awarded Australian of the Year in 2008, and for the wonderful album he recorded this year, Spirit of the ANZACs, an epic musical journey through every war this country has fought in, using diaries, letters, memoirs and other source material gleaned from hours of research at the Australian War Memorial. It was an album fitting of the rich military history that Australia can lay claim to.

Unfortunately, the country’s preeminent country music star has chosen to not join other influential musicians including Jimmy Barnes, John Schumann of Redgum, Midnight Oil and John Farnham in asking the organisers of these anti-Muslim rallies to not use his patriotic anthem, Spirit of the ANZACs, a song that celebrates the diversity of our diggers throughout the years.

The groups that use his music to support their own abhorrent message have doubtless latched on to the line in the song that talks about soldiers being born beneath the southern cross. They’re good at taking an innocent line and twisting it. Sort of how one commenter on social media actually accused Barnes of supporting the arranged marriage of men to young girls because of the line “he loved a little woman” in Working Class Man.

Don’t get me wrong, Kernaghan’s press release – delivered via Facebook – hasn’t exactly come out in support of Reclaim Australia and the similar groups that we’ve all heard far too much about recently, but nor has he come out and told them to stop using his music.

That’s the problem. Now, there’s going to be a perception that Kernaghan supports the groups I mentioned above. That may not actually be the case, but that hardly matters in the court of public opinion. By all accounts, he’s a good man, and his charitable work backs that up, but he’s made a serious error of judgement here. I don’t believe that he actually supports these groups. At least, I hope he doesn’t.

Already, Kernaghan is being hung, drawn and quartered on social media. I believe it’s called a “cop-out.” He’s trying to placate both sides of this argument – and that’s wrong. If he doesn’t like ‘Spirit of the ANZACS’ being played at these rallies, he should come out and say so. For mine, his insistence that the song be played in a manner that is “consistent with - and respectful of, the memory of ... [soldiers who] laid down their lives for the freedoms we have today."

These songs, so much a part of our history, are being twisted, remoulded and – completely incorrectly – reinterpreted by these Reclaim-type groups to suit their own agenda. It’s sad to see. Sorry, but I can’t see how playing ‘Spirit’ at these rallies is doing so in respectful memory of our dead servicemen and women. I just can’t.

We know exactly where Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil and John Farnham stand on the issue. Barnes talked about tolerance. They’re barking up the wrong tree with him, given his wife was born in Thailand. Let it not be forgotten, either, that ‘Khe Sanh’ isn’t the patriotic anthem people assume it to be. It’s the story of a disaffected Vietnam veteran, and it covers some rather unpleasant territory. On both counts, someone hasn’t done their research!

Equally strong in condemnation was Farnham manager Glen Wheatley. He called the use of ‘You’re The Voice’ at these rallies as “disgusting”, and Farnham makes similar comments in recent press releases. Those two have left no one in any doubt as to how they feel. Nor have Midnight Oil. Cold Chisel, although they haven’t come out with any real press release, ‘liked’ and commented on Barnes’ Facebook post saying, “Well said, Jimmy.” So, we know where they stand, too. Not so with Lee Kernaghan.

Before you suggest that the reason Kernaghan hasn’t come out against these rallies is because he knows where his bread is buttered – meaning that country music fans are obviously “bogans”, using the unflattering term, and also backwoods and blue-collar enough to agree with this – take a second and consider a few things.

One, I’m a fan of country music, and specifically of Lee Kernaghan. I’m far from a typical bogan. I just happen to like pretty much all types of music. Secondly, if we’re throwing this dangerous generalisations about various artists and their fan bases, you would want to consider that Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel might well appeal to a similar sort of working-class Australian. That hasn’t stopped them from speaking their mind, and saying the right thing. I admire Jimmy Barnes even more now.

Lee, you can’t sit on the fence on this. I doubt that you meant any of what you said in a negative fashion, but the fact remains that there are groups out there who are using your wonderful music and skewing it to portray a message that is dangerous to the racial and cultural tolerance of Australia. Not saying anything is a tacit form of approval, whether Kernaghan means it to be or not. By not condemning the playing of these songs, Lee is attaching his name and his musical creations to the Reclaim group.

What makes Australia great is that we have a wonderful and eclectic mix of people from all walks of life, and from all corners of the world. That should never change. Our country is a melting pot of all sorts of people from all walks of life. That should never change.

It’s time to hop off the fence, Lee Kernaghan. If you don’t agree with your music being played as a rallying call, bloody well come out and say so! If this was a miscalculation on your part – and I wonder what your social media people, if indeed you have any, were thinking, doing and saying. Maybe it’s time to hire some? You’ve still got some time to fix this.