Arts & Culture
10 September, 2026
Rick Price fans in for a treat
It has been more than 30 years since Rick Price burst onto the Australian music scene with his debut album ‘Heaven Knows’. Price – now 65 and still going strong – has never tired of performing hits from the album including the title track and ‘Not a Day Goes By’.
It has been more than 30 years since Rick Price burst onto the Australian music scene with his debut album ‘Heaven Knows’.
Price – now 65 and still going strong – has never tired of performing hits from the album including the title track and ‘Not a Day Goes By’.
He says it’s about staying present with the words and “not repeating them like a parrot”.
It’s about making every performance “a new moment”.
Price – who shares his time between Australia and Nashville in the United States – is currently celebrating the release of his latest single ‘Call One Me’ from the acclaimed ‘Hometown’ album.
He is on the road again, promising audiences “an intimate and engaging live experience” with hits from the past and some of his more recent material.
It is being described as both “nostalgic and refreshingly current”.
Price says his ‘Call On Me’ tour is a stripped-back and acoustic-driven show.
Just one man and his guitar – and a bit of piano as well.
“There’s something about one man on the stage that’s unique,” Price told The Southern Week this week.
It provides the opportunity to improvise and make each song “more spontaneous” – meaning no two shows will be the same.
Price will be performing in a number of small, regional venues as part of the tour including the Camden Hotel and the Bowral Bowling Club.
He says he enjoys performing in small venues because it enables him to build an intimate connection with the audience.
“I’m a small-town kid – that’s part of my psyche and nature,” he said.
Price says ‘Hometown’ is a salute to the area in regional Queensland where he grew up.
He was born in Beaudesert and has nothing but fond of memories of his childhood – exploring Tamborine Mountain and performing in dance halls with a family band.
He describes it as his ‘Harry Potter period’ because it was so magical and he makes the trip back to Beaudesert every year.
One of his earlier albums was actually named ‘Tamborine Mountain’ and many of his songs over the years have been inspired by the region where he grew up and the people he holds dear.
“I really do write from a personal perspective,” he said.
He describes himself as a storyteller following in the footsteps of singer/songwriters like Neil Young and James Taylor.
Price has hardly drawn breath over the past 30 years, putting out a string of albums including a couple of ‘best of’ and ‘greatest hits’ album.
He also teamed up with good friend Jack Johnson for ‘California Dreaming’ and released an album of songs from the 1960s (‘Soulville’) and an album of gospel songs (‘Wayfaring Stranger’).
‘Hometown’ is the first album of his own work since Tennessee Sky more than 10 years ago.
Price also has his own record label, Clarence Records.
Besides producing his own albums, he has also been working with a talented young Melbourne artist, Issi, and is excited about the release of her debut EP later this year.
“There’s always something on the stove boiling.”
Price said it was a challenging time for young artists trying to break into the industry because there was so much new music hitting the airwaves.
He said approximately 100,000 new songs were hitting Spotify every day.
But he said 22-year-old Issi had an “incredible voice” and he is confident her EP will be a success.
Price says his music has definitely evolved over the years.
He says he doesn’t try to categorise his music but describes it as an “organic roots-based sound”.
Others say it is more country.
“I really don’t mind. I don’t care,” he said.
He concedes that his music has a certain country flavour but says it “doesn’t sound like some of the modern country”.
Price has no plans to take his foot off the pedal.
“I have no plans to slow down,” he told The Southern Wire.
He has banked a heap of songs and ideas over the past 10 years and says ‘Hometown’ certainly won’t be his last album.
“God willing and the creek don’t rise”, he hopes there will be many more to come.
He plans to spend most of next year focusing on his own music and getting back into the studio to record.
Price says he still gets a kick when he hears one of his hits playing over the speaker system when he walks into a Coles or Woolworths supermarket.
He also loves the fact that his fanbase now spans different generations.
He says kids that grew up listening to their parents’ music were now adults themselves and Rick Price fans in their own right.
He knows what they want to hear, so treats his audience to all the hits as well as his new material.
‘Heaven Knows’ continues to be his most requested hit.
He said it wasn’t a religious song but it has resonated with people both here and overseas – particularly in Southeast Asia where he continues to attract huge crowds.
In fact the largest audience of his career was not in Australia but at a music festival in Singapore when 15,000 people turned on the back of ‘Heaven Knows’.
Price says ‘Heaven Knows’ has a faith aspect but describes it more as a “song of surrender”.
“At some point you need to say ‘I maybe reunited with my love, but maybe I won’t. It’s out of my control’,” he said.
· For tour dates and ticket information visit www.rickprice.com/tour
Check out the break through hit around 30 years ago below.
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