Regan Tucker, who performs as Triggar Happy, says his farm work has inspired his drive and passion for music.<\/p>\n
Most of Tucker\u2019s early life was spent on farms with his two brothers and sister. There, he quickly learned the value of hard work and reaping what you sow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were brought up hungry and poor. We mopped the floor, we chipped the thistles, pulled the ragwort. Dad had a hedge on every fence line, and we had to break the farm in. We\u2019re talking long days on an axe and a shovel,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad brought us up amazing. And you make life what you got, right? He brought me up with just good morals. Hard work pays off. And I contribute that to Triggar Happy. So hard work [in music] is the same as on the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
After realising school wasn\u2019t for him, Tucker estimates he spent roughly 25 years milking cows, and then another 10 running sheep farms and shearing and crutching. Years of hard yakka on the farms later, he moved to Tasmania to broaden his horizons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019ve got to do something because I want to own a farm\u2019. I\u2019d saved enough money, and I owned three rentals. I got backed by the bank and I had to sell ice to the Eskimos to get it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But he did it. And the first year went okay \u2013 until his farm experienced nine droughts in a row. One good year. Nine bad years. Then the bank came calling. <\/p>\n
\u201cI lost over a million dollars in equity and ended up with nearly nothing again, so I came back home. That\u2019s when I wrote my best songs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Kiwi farmer-turned-musician Triggar Happy is going all in. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Through all his years working the land, he had played the harmonica in his car alone in the dead of night and even sang country classics to his cows (\u201cthat was my therapy, you know\u201d). Even as the music soothed him, the dark times that came when he lost the farm tested Tucker.<\/p>\n
A marriage split meant the houses were locked-in money, and he had no cash-flow. He says he experienced being homeless and \u201cslept in the rain\u201d and in his car at times during this period.<\/p>\n
But this was the start of the birth of Triggar Happy, through \u201ctears and his dusty boots\u201d.<\/p>\n
While it wasn\u2019t an ideal job, a lawnmowing business allowed him to \u201clisten to music and stay fit\u201d. For three years, he was mowing 135 lawns a fortnight until he \u201cgot totally sick of it\u201d. <\/p>\n
He \u201cbegged\u201d for his old job back, sharemilking in Hamilton. <\/p>\n
\u201dI stayed there for seven years and struggled my butt off,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Triggar Happy is bringing his cowboy charisma to Auckland’s Big Fan in May.<\/p>\n
This is where he met his current partner, Cherie, and the pair now own a 10-acre block in \u014ctorohanga and have two children together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was her dream to settle down and have a family because she\u2019d never been married … And she said, \u2018what do you want to do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He wanted to be the \u201cbest country rock singer on the planet\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeep down in my soul, I know I had to become Triggar Happy because I had all that music to give and wanted to sing about the absolute forging that I\u2019ve been through. I\u2019ve been through some hard s***, like homelessness, and all that\u2019s not very nice. But because I have faith in God, I do believe that I was forged. And that, that brought a warrior feeling in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, his albums Love, Loyalty Respect and Talk Is Cheap topped the Aotearoa Music Charts multiple weeks in a row. These albums are infused with a battler spirit \u2013 the Triggar persona has been moulded from hard knocks and heartfelt emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even really discover country rock till I was in the heavy grind, in the heavy shed, feeding a family, struggling my butt off and paying the power bill. That\u2019s when I found real music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Triggar Happy lost it all. Now he’s going all in with music. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
He listened to the classics as a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember Elvis ringing through the stereo. And Neil Sedaka or Creedence Clearwater. They played Garth Brooks and then I fell in love with American country rock music.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd George Strait is my hero, man. I wear a black hat when I sing, which is identical to his. I\u2019ve listened to all his songs, Troubadour, being one of my favourites.”<\/p>\n
Triggar Happy’s albums topped the NZ charts. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Now on the cusp of an Auckland headlining show at Big Fan, Tucker says it\u2019s no longer about dwelling on the hard knocks, and instead about laying it all on the table. His persona may be brash, but his heart rings true.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first started off, it was a lot of \u2018poor me, struggling, help me\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a man who has evolved from a hard, dark place of struggle, which we all go through, to a positive, never give up, never tap out, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his guitar strung around his back and trademark shades over his eyes, Tucker, in his thick New Zealand accent, says his dream is to reach the USA, Texas specifically, and work with the greats. He also one day dreams of owning a ranch, one he could return to after touring the world with his music.<\/p>\n
That will take hard work, but he\u2019s up for the task.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know things get hard, man, and you can sleep in the rain, bro, because I know I did. And you can cry as much as you want in the rain, too. When it all boils down to it, you only lose when you quit.\u201d<\/p>\n