Aussie songwriting icon Paul Kelly makes huge announcement: ‘It’s a little bit nerve-racking’

Iconic singer-songwriter Paul Kelly has announced the biggest Australian and New Zealand tour of his career.

The 17-time ARIA award winner, 69, will be hitting the road in 2025 on his first ever headlining arena tour, set to kick off in Perth on August 29.

From there, the Dumb Things hitmaker will head to Brisbane on August 29, Sydney on August 30, Hobart on September 2, Adelaide on September 4 and Melbourne on September 6.

He will then head across the Tasman for shows in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.

Joining Paul on the ambitious tour will be 6-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell and his band the 400 Unit as well as Aussie singer-songwriter Fanny Lumsden.

The tour announcement comes of the cusp of Paul releasing his 29th studio album, Forever Longing Still, which is set to drop on November 1.

While he is no stranger to big stages, having supported Bob Dylan in 2001 and 2011, and Leonard Cohen in 2009 on their respective arena tours, this will be the first time Paul is leading the charge.

Speaking to The Australian, Paul said that it was more of a natural progression than than a concerted effort on his part to shift into playing arenas. 

‘I like to keep trying different things,’ he said.

‘It’s probably been a mark of what I’ve done over the years. It’s not like I wake up one morning and say, “I’ve got to play arenas!”‘

The To Her Door singer added that the prospect of commanding such large stages was ‘nerve-racking.’   

‘It’s a team thing – our agents and management saying: “I reckon you should do this, let’s try it”, and me saying, “Yeah, OK – I haven’t done this before, let’s see how this works”,’ he said.

‘It’s a little bit nerve-racking – it’s an unpredictable time in music, so you just hope it all goes well.’

Tickets for all shows will go on sale on Wednesday 30 October at 3pm, local time, via Frontier Touring’s website.

Presale begins Monday, October 28, for Frontier members.

The legendary singer recently paid a visit to the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison in Western Australia – located 600km from Perth – after learning the inmates had covered his sentimental prison ballad How To Make Gravy.  

‘It’s a little bit nerve-racking – it’s an unpredictable time in music, so you just hope it all goes well,’ Paul told The Australian

‘Music is a great way of just being together. When you make music with someone, it’s something that you couldn’t do by yourself,’ Paul told Perth Now.

‘It really builds bridges. It goes through walls, goes through the air, goes all around the world.’

‘Music is a universal language and a good example is their recording of the song. There’s a couple of different languages in there, but the feeling still comes across,’ he continued.

The legendary song has been adapted into film form and will be Binge’s first-ever feature film, hitting the streamer on December 1.

As in the 1996 song, the film tells the story of prisoner Joe (Daniel Henshall), who is writing home to his brother Dan (Brenton Thwaites) to share his recipe for the perfect Christmas dinner gravy. 

Kelly has won multiple awards since launching his music career in 1974 and he has a string of hits to his name, including cult favourite To Her Door from 1987.