NelsonIn 1988, before they even had a record deal and two years before they topped the US charts, the Nelson twins, Matthew and Gunnar, decided to venture to Australia.
“Gunnar and I had always been fascinated by the country of Australia,” Matthew Nelson reveals.
On the flight to Sydney, the American duo found themselves sitting next to Divinyls’ Chrissy Amphlett and Mark McEntee. “I couldn’t believe our luck,” Matthew recalls.
“We had been fans of their Desperate album, which we played on an endless loop in high school. And Chrissy’s performance in the Boys In Town video was incendiary.”
As the plane crossed the Pacific, the twins played their demo tape to Mark McEntee. “He gave us creative and constructive comments after each song. We were in heaven. Half of those songs would end up on our debut LP, and half of those were big hits for us. I’m forever grateful to them both.”
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
Matthew cried when he heard Chrissy had died in 2013. “It bothers me that I didn’t get to thank her for her kindness to us that day. She was very special.
“I never forgot how their interaction with us inspired us when we were so green, and even though it was a tiny moment in time that they probably forgot about, I still always keep them in mind when I talk to somebody who wants to get into music and asks for advice. Pay it forward, right, mate?”
The Divinyls’ favourite Nelson song was Will You Love Me?
At the tail-end of the hair rock era, Nelson became one of the biggest bands in the world. With their flowing blond locks, the twins joked that they looked like “Hot Swedish Chicks”.
They have now told their remarkable tale in the book What Happened To Your Hair? It stands as one of 2026’s finest music memoirs. As the kids say, it has all the feels: it’s funny, sad, tragic, and revealing.
On the back cover, the twins are not afraid to quote some of their less-flattering reviews:
“We burn effigies of them before every show.” – Kurt Cobain.
“Nelson: Because They Can? Maybe they shouldn’t.” – People magazine.
“Hey, those two chicks are hot!” “Those aren’t chicks, that’s Nelson.” “Nelson are chicks. I get the one on the left, you get the ugly one.” – Beavis and Butt-Head.
The book reveals how Australia – and Australians – played a key role in the Nelson story.
In their early days, the twins were co-managed by Australia’s Geoffrey Schuhkraft, who also worked with Little River Band.
Gunnar calls Schuhkraft “an invaluable mentor”.
“He’d seen through our brave faces and in to how emotionally damaged Matt and I were. If it weren’t for a couple of key conversations with him at that formative crossroads in our lives, I honestly don’t know where we’d be now.”
The duo worked with Graeham Goble, writing As Long As I’m Alive, which turned up on LRB’s last proper album, 1990’s Get Lucky.
Years later, Nelson bumped into LRB bass player Wayne Nelson (no relation), who told them it was his “favourite LRB cut that wasn’t a hit”.
The twins were big LRB fans. “We considered them Australia’s Eagles,” Matthew says. “They had fantastic vocals and harmonies and incredible songs and were big influences on our sound.”
Graeham Goble also provided an insight into how he created LRB’s biggest hit, Reminiscing.
“In your head, slow down the theme song to I Love Lucy to one-third speed,” the LRB guitarist told the brothers. “Does it sound familiar to you?”
“Apparently, LRB had been on the road in a random town and a random hotel and an I Love Lucy rerun came on the television where the intro of Reminiscing might have been unconsciously sparked,” Matthew reveals.
Despite meeting Divinyls and working with LRB, Nelson’s first trip Down Under wasn’t all fun. Matthew suffered food poisoning in Brisbane and wanted to cancel a trip to Cairns. But Schuhkraft ordered him to go.
“That’s what it’s like when you’re on tour, mate,” he told his young star. “No excuses. No cancellations.”
“I hate to admit it, but he was right,” the singer reflects.
“The takeaway was this: work ethic is crucial, and you gotta make it happen, especially when people are counting on you … quitting is not an option.
“It was that first trip around Australia that manned us up a little and made us feel like we were connecting with the whole world.”
In Sydney, Schuhkraft put the duo up at a squalid hotel in Kings Cross, “one of the roughest, seediest places we’ve ever encountered worldwide … another learning experience, courtesy of our Australian manager”.
While in Sydney, Gunnar broke up with his girlfriend back in the US – via a pay phone. That experience inspired the Nelson song Everywhere I Go.
Things brightened when the duo arrived in Melbourne for an appearance on Hey Hey It’s Saturday, as judges on Red Faces. “I loved it,” Matthew recalls. “It was a national treasure in Australia, like SNL in the States. It seemed as if the entire country watched it because we were instant celebrities.
“We could feel the love in the air for us from the show’s cast, the live audience, and Australia in general.”
Gunnar later told me, “I loved Melbourne when I was down there – it was my favourite city of all time.”
When the twins started Nelson, they were still struggling with the passing of their dad, Ricky, who was killed in a plane crash in 1985, aged 45.
Ricky Nelson’s Poor Little Fool was the first number one song on Billboard’s Hot 100 when the chart started in 1958.
Ricky’s parents, Ozzie and Harriet, had also topped the US charts with And Then Some in 1935.
The Nelsons are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only family to have had three successive generations top the US charts.
Matthew and Gunnar hit number one in the US with their debut single (Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection.
Its success surprised their co-manager Paul Palmer (who went on to co-found Trauma Records, which signed Bush and No Doubt) whose initial reaction to the song is recorded in the book:
“That song’s a sinker.”
Nelson followed Love and Affection with the title track of their debut album, After The Rain, which was another Top 10 smash in the US.
Unfortunately, Nelson’s After The Rain world tour failed to make it to Australia. “I truly regret that,” Matthew says.
But the duo did return to Sydney for 1991’s Pepsi Celebrity Festival, which also included Meat Loaf, Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil, Stephen Stills, Olivia Newton-John, and model Kelly Emberg.
While in Australia, the twins bonded with Meat Loaf and ended up singing on Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back on his blockbuster Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell.
The twins speak about their love of many Aussie acts in the book, including Rick Springfield, plus:
John Farnham – “We still feel he was the best male vocalist in pop music ever” (Nelson also poached Farnham’s guitarist, Brett Garsed.)
Olivia Newton-John – “Olivia was beautiful, sweet and an incredible talent. She made us feel right at home with her on that stage.”
INXS – “We’d set the bar quite high, sonically speaking, using the vibe of INXS’s Kick record as our gold standard.”
When I interviewed Gunnar in 1990, he said: “We don’t do drugs, we don’t drink, but we have one vice – women. We love women.”
The new book documents Gunnar’s secret liaison with an Aussie star. “She was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had in my life,” says Gunnar, who refuses to name the singer, because “I don’t kiss and tell”.
He calls her “Gina”, describing her as “gorgeous, sexy, poised, successful and famous”.
The Aussie artist went to see Nelson play at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Only problem was, the show was cancelled because Gunnar had lost his voice. Though Gunnar could only communicate via writing notes on a legal pad, the two forged an instant connection.
“It felt like a past-life-level connection: weird, powerful and, with the stress I’d been under, it felt like my salvation … I made her laugh, and she made me blush.”
The couple spent 36 “perfect hours” together in Gunnar’s hotel room. “I fell in like … and then I fell in love. We were more intimate, more quickly than I’d ever been able to be.
“I will always be in debt to Gina for everything. The bottom line: We met, built a true friendship, had a torrid love affair, and ended it all gracefully and gratefully … and it’s remained one of the most pure and romantic experiences of my life.
“To this day, I’ve never spoken a single word to her. Legendary.”
The Music has confirmed that “Gina” is Tina Arena, who remembers the encounter as “sweet and romantic”, saying: “To look at, Gunnar was a Viking, out of this world – waist-length blond hair, perfect bone structure, tanned, tall – I won’t go on – and he was just as gorgeous on the inside.”
What Happened To Your Hair? by Matthew & Gunnar Nelson is published by Permuted Press.
