{"id":433479,"date":"2026-01-24T02:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433479\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:13:09","slug":"john-williamson-takes-his-final-bow-at-the-tamworth-country-music-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433479\/","title":{"rendered":"John Williamson takes his final bow at the Tamworth Country Music Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Williamson’s first memories of Tamworth weren’t the famous country music festival, but rather the pain he felt during a rugby match.<\/p>\n

“My earliest memory is playing rugby against one of the Tamworth teams \u2026 I actually broke my shoulder and I’ve still got a wire in it,” he said.<\/p>\n

Since then, his memories of the country music capital have changed to be filled with golden guitars, cowboy boots and plenty of music.<\/p>\n

\"Older<\/p>\n

John Williamson says 2026 will be his last year performing at Tamworth. (ABC New England: Peter Sanders\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“I remember the old legends were still going, Slim Dusty and Buddy Williams performing, that’s where it all started,” he said.<\/p>\n

After nearly 54 years at the festival, the Australian country music legend will headline the Tamworth stage for a final time.<\/p>\n

“I was very much involved from the beginning. I was one of the five that started the Country Music Association of Australia and I’ve been part of getting it back to belonging to the musicians themselves,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Tamworth Country Music Festival hosts more than 300,000 attendees every year. (ABC News: Kemii Maguire)<\/p>\n

“I think about all the different things that have happened over the years in Tamworth, all the different friends I’ve made.<\/p>\n

“I just want everyone to know that I appreciate what Tamworth has done for Aussie songs.”<\/p>\n

Although he’s stepping away from the festival stage, Williamson said he would continue to write and record music, but he was ready for some time with family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Williamson describes returning to Tamworth each year as “nostalgic”. (Supplied: Matt Williams)<\/p>\n

“It’s my 56th year in the business and I’m just a bit tired of being away from home,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I might do the odd local gig \u2026 it’s just the travelling away and flying on aeroplanes, I’m sick of aeroplanes and sick of airports.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williamson said he was not sure how he would feel after his final festival show, but he wanted to finish on a high note.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it’s good to pull out while I’m still doing good shows and I’m not having to read the lyrics or have monitors on the stage,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see how I feel afterwards, but I mean, just about everybody that retires wants to come back and do it again.”<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John WIlliamson will say thank you to Tamworth at his final gig. (ABC Western Qld: Grace Nakamura)<\/p>\n

Williamson is ready to hand the reins of Australian country music to the next generation; all he asks is they take care of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s time to let the young ones in and do what they want to do,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Make sure you keep it Australian, be yourself, and sing about what you know in this country.<\/p>\n

“Aussie stories, we want to keep that going. Let’s hope we don’t let that fade in the future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Williamson’s first memories of Tamworth weren’t the famous country music festival, but rather the pain he felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,20994,6982,134,22033,226708,67678,67753,218372],"class_list":["post-433479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-music","tag-country-music","tag-entertainment","tag-final-show","tag-john-williamson","tag-music-festival","tag-retiring","tag-tamworth-country-music-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}