Wrestlin' Crocs, Surfin' In Ballina And Southern Rock Gumbo

"I’d come back even more if I could, I love it there,” John “JJ” Grey chuckles. He and his band Mofro were last here this past Easter to play Bluesfest, so their return a mere six months later suggests some serious love. “I stayed on the North Shore in Sydney once in the mid ‘90s for like a month and fell in love with the place and got to visit a few places during that timeframe. Came again in 2008 to play the Byron Bay blues festival [Bluesfest] as well and stayed an extra week in Ballina and surfed all the little surf spots around there. I’m really looking forward to seeing Melbourne — I’ve visited Sydney several times and played Sydney last time we were there — and one day hopefully I’ll get way up north. I’d love to get up towards Cairns… I’d love to see Darwin, man. I love the countryside so I’d love to see some of the way-out places. Everything I’ve ever seen of the place is beautiful though.” 

"I love the countryside so I’d love to see some of the way-out places. Everything I’ve ever seen of the place is beautiful though.” 

Don’t expect him to try anything Crocodile Dundee however: “I don’t know if I’ll wrestle no crocs,” he laughs. “I might run from them. The ‘gators in Florida are pretty mellow, but we have crocs in extreme south Florida — they’re finally makin’ a comeback — and they get real big, but there are so few of them. It’s not like up in your North where they get real big and lots of ‘em.”

These days, Grey calls North Port, about midway down on the western side of the Florida peninsula, home, but he grew up outside of Jacksonville, and his music — a gumbo of Southern rock, soul, gospel, blues and funk — is very much a reflection of that rural Southern landscape. Funnily enough, it’s a style of music that resonates remarkably well with Australians and Europeans. 

“Yeah, they dig it,” he agrees. “One of the things I’ve noticed about Europeans, and I think Australia is more like that than America in that Europeans don’t necessarily throw away things just because it’s not… You know, in America, there’s this thing like, ‘New, new, new’ and anything older than new is too old. Whereas in Europe, they enjoy the new too but they’re like, ‘But this is still good and we’re not throwin’ it out just because it ain’t brand new anymore.’ And Australia seems a little bit more like Europe like that.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he adds. “We do great here in the US and I’ve got no beef with it — the new album [Ol’ Glory, released this past February] has done great and is still doin’ great and it’s been a lot of fun playin’ the music; I think it’s been the best-selling record to date for us, especially in Europe — but I love that some of the genre rules and cultural rules attached to the music scene specifically here don’t exist in other places.”