Close by, a three-legged orange cat lounges on the back step before gently demanding to be carried upstairs for some peace and quiet. His humans take a minute to bask in the sun streaming in the kitchen window and from here, you can spy Dobbyn\u2019s studio at the end of the garden.<\/p>\n
That space is the complete opposite of the family home, fortuitously already there when they bought the place. <\/p>\n
“I thought there\u2019d be some kind of off-ramp, but there isn\u2019t. And I wouldn\u2019t take it if there was, because I\u2019d miss it too much.’ Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
With no windows, it is dark, but more cocoon-like than dreary. Curved orange and beige brick walls radiate their own version of sunshine, while trinkets and mementos of a life lived large are perched everywhere you look; guitars strung from the ceiling, gold records leaning above a well-loved piano, posters from past tours scattered like postcards. There are wires everywhere, connecting microphones to amps to mixing desks. <\/p>\n
Dobbyn\u2019s wife of more than 40 years, Anneliesje, visits briefly, carefully balancing a cup of tea that will soon go cold near a laptop plastered with words from a label maker: Love one another. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of spot you could imagine whiling away the hours, while the rest of the world can just bloody wait. But sometimes, waiting is a luxury hard to afford. And Dobbyn\u2019s not one to waste time overthinking things. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a disadvantage like me, with the Parkinson\u2019s, it makes you perform better in a way. You have to overcome the restrictions of it and then be able to just loosen up and not worry about what\u2019s going to happen or whether I\u2019m going to be weak or whatever. It\u2019s just like [being in] another world. Although when I finish, I\u2019m usually pretty knackered. Not that I\u2019m doing a lot of choreography.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hey, never say never. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, exactly. Pyrotechnics would be good, but I\u2019d probably blow myself up. [But being on stage] is just so addictive. So necessary, like food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbyn has spoken about living with Parkinson\u2019s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2022, a little \u2013 but not a lot. Today, the effects are obvious; he walks a little slower, talks a little slower and his strength is not what it was. <\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t stopped him performing, not really. Although he reveals there was a time he did have to step away from the stage, maybe the longest break he\u2019s ever had from performing live since he started playing guitar for Th\u2019 Dudes in the mid 70s. <\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of years ago I was busy battling, well, not only Parkinson\u2019s, I had prostate cancer, but that\u2019s gone, along with the prostate,\u201d he shares candidly. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019ve got mild emphysema, like COPD, which can be limiting. I\u2019m unable to do a lot of aerobic exercise without getting completely puffed.\u201d<\/p>\n
COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a progressive lung disease that restricts airflow and causes breathing problems. In conversation, there are moments when it\u2019s clear talking is not as simple as it once was. So you would imagine bopping around on stage for a couple of hours would be a real effort. Except it\u2019s not. That\u2019s the one place Dobbyn doesn\u2019t struggle. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor some reason it doesn\u2019t occur [on stage]. I can sing and play and it hasn\u2019t affected my voice. I can still project my voice when I need to. And so it\u2019s almost like it\u2019s a different set of rules once you\u2019re performing. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything lifts up. It\u2019s like, oh yeah, I can do that. Or [the effect of Parkinson\u2019s means] I can\u2019t play that anymore, but I could play this, because things do start limiting. I can\u2019t quite do a lot of the chords like I used to. But then I\u2019ll be able to sort of rip into a solo and go, where did that come from \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The body is a weird thing. Dobbyn agrees. He reckons his must be running on muscle memory at least some of the time these days. And even when it doesn\u2019t work the way he wants, there\u2019s no resentment. <\/p>\n
He thinks being angry is \u201ca waste of energy\u201d. He thinks things happen, and when they happen you\u2019ve just got to deal with it. You accept things as they come. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou forgive yourself and you forgive everyone else, because it\u2019s nobody\u2019s fault,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love the fact that you can be in a state of acceptance against, you know, pretty steep odds sometimes. But it balances out. There are other rewards and there are other ways of looking at things that more than make up for things I can\u2019t do or whether or not I can perform or not. I know that I can, and so as long as I know that, I can just keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbyn (centre) joined Th’ Dudes in the 70s. <\/p>\n
One of five kids, Dobbyn was raised Catholic in Auckland\u2019s Glen Innes, and met his Th\u2019 Dudes bandmates Ian Morris, Peter Urlich and Peter Coleman, at Sacred Heart College. <\/p>\n
Today, he says his relationship with God is \u201cdeeper\u201d than it has been, particularly when it comes to his health and the moments when it feels overwhelming. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve deepened my belief in Jesus Christ and everything he represents and the love that he has and that he\u2019s showering down on people right, left and centre, on the good and the bad \u2026 But I get a huge amount of support from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put a lot of it down to my faith, you know, that God always manages to whisper to you, I\u2019ll take care of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbyn has always been a nervous performer, or maybe nervous to perform is a better description. Famously, he would play with his back to the audience early in his career. Then, someone told him he was mistaking adrenaline and excitement for fear, so he turned around. <\/p>\n
\u201cI still get the tingles and the scared shitless feeling. But once we\u2019re on [stage] it sort of calms down and gets into the groove. That\u2019s magic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nerves and anxiety still come along at times \u2013 according to Parkinson\u2019s New Zealand, anxiety affects up to 40% of people with the disease. Dobbyn finds airports particularly tricky. But he\u2019ll be closer to home in July, when he plays a one-night-only concert at The Civic in Auckland, featuring his hits performed by an eight-piece band, which includes his son Eli on percussion. <\/p>\n
Dobbyn loves The Civic. He wrote a song about The Civic. He calls it a \u201cgolden palace\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were kids, it was a big treat to come along the waterfront on the rattly old diesel buses, come into town to Britomart and then, holding on to each other\u2019s shirt tails, going up the street to get to The Civic.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Auckland show has been preceded by a handful of shows around the country in the past year. He already knows it will open with either Kingdom Come or Bell Tower. He doesn\u2019t know what he will finish with: \u201cIt depends on whether we get an encore or not\u201d. <\/p>\n
Yeah, in what universe, mate \u2026<\/p>\n
Dobbyn, photographed at his home in Grey Lynn, will perform at The Civic in July. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
Pulling the shows together forced Dobbyn to look back over his career and the songs he\u2019s written. The process surprised him; even after choosing the 22 hits and putting them in the right order (he mentions something about flow), there were still so many songs left, so many more he could have included. <\/p>\n
Yet over the years, he has worried about his musical legacy. He worries less so today. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would often get the feeling that whoever I ran into, they\u2019d come to the music, and would not realise that there was a depth to it, layers and layers of songs, and songs that painted their own stories, or told their own stories. I\u2019d get quite anxious about that, but I don\u2019t worry about it now. I know the song will stand on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbyn has won the Silver Scroll Award for song-writing three times \u2013 more than anyone else in New Zealand. He reckons the best song he\u2019s ever written is Welcome Home. He wanted it to be as \u201cmemorable as Now Is The Hour\u201d and remembers feeling like it wrote itself in the same time it took to sing it through. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when it does you really listen. You listen and obey the song\u201d.<\/p>\n
What about Slice of Heaven, New Zealand\u2019s unofficial national anthem? Does he hum along when he hears it playing at the supermarket?<\/p>\n
\u201cI jokingly go \u2018ka-ching! ka-ching!\u2019,\u201d he says, punctuated with that mischievous smile of his. <\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s his age, maybe it\u2019s his health, but Dobbyn is focused on the finer details these days. Living in the moment comes more naturally now than it did when he was younger. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always the really small things that make a life, I reckon. It\u2019s all those series of tiny little things and they become really precious. Like when you\u2019re looking at your kids or when you look into your wife\u2019s eyes or you just spot something new each time and never never get sick of it. And so you really appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That goes for playing and touring and spending time with his audiences too. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t do it forever but I\u2019ll try, I\u2019ll give it my darndest. And, you know, hopefully when I\u2019m up in the heavenlies I\u2019ll be in some kind of band or choir.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t want it to end.\u201d<\/p>\n
See Sir Dave Dobbyn\u2019s Selected Songs \u2013 Encore at The Civic on July 25. Visit ticketmaster for more details<\/p>\n
Bridget Jones joined the New Zealand Herald in 2025. She has been a lifestyle and entertainment journalist and editor for more than 15 years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Close by, a three-legged orange cat lounges on the back step before gently demanding to be carried upstairs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6450,95,31875,9635,797,7191,83062,156,3052,14724,692,134,5420,2176,157,111,139,4061,69,90,24830,2171,14152,46440,49963,7811,8485,2249,6642,2044,1865,4276,102,14443,1530],"class_list":["post-497172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-6450","tag-and","tag-bridget","tag-dave","tag-diagnosed","tag-disease","tag-dobbyn","tag-entertainment","tag-faced","tag-further","tag-he","tag-health","tag-hes","tag-jones","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-number","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-parkinsons","tag-plans","tag-quit","tag-retire","tag-setbacks","tag-since","tag-sir","tag-soon","tag-tells","tag-time","tag-today","tag-why","tag-with","tag-wont","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}