Looking forward, looking back 20 YEARS WITHOUT MY DAD

SLIM DUSTY'S DAUGHTER REMEMBERS HER HERO

- Jenny Brown

Sydney’s grand St Andrew’s cathedral had never seen anything like it the prime minister, senior churchmen and assorted celebrities all bellowing ‘A Pub With No Beer’ at full volume in a rousing state funeral send off for Slim Dusty.

It’s been two decades since the country music star, born David Gordon Kirkpatrick, left us. But his indelible legacy – and that of his late singer-songwriter wife Joy McKean – lives on.

“We talk about Dad a lot, and keep his memory alive through the Slim Dusty Centre and his recordings,” Slim’s daughter Anne Kirkpatrick, 71, tells New Idea.

“I always feel he left us far too early at 76. He was still making music just weeks before he passed, working on another album. When he couldn’t sing anymore, that’s when he thought, ‘I’m outta here.’

“Until then, he was still packing out venues, so full of ideas and wanting to tour and record … he did everything he wanted to do. He and Mum left us so much.”