Joe Camilleri is best known as being the founder of the Black Sorrows. Here, the 77-year-old talks about the important women in his life, including the mothers of his children, who range in age from 14 to 47.
I met my maternal grandmother, Emily, for the first time when I was 30. I migrated to Australia from Malta in 1950 with my mum and siblings and didn’t have any formative memories of her. My grandmother had 16 children. As my band became popular, I was able to tour Europe and visit her.
My mother, whom we called Nina, came to Australia to find a better life; Dad [Joe] had come out a year earlier. She owned lots of records and loved Frankie Laine. Mum raised 10 children and died of dementia 13 years ago. She always told me she wanted me to be happy, get a good job and look after family.
My sister Phyllis is three years older than me. She was just like Mum and always told me, “Do something you can be proud of.” I was a teenage runaway, and at one stage Phyllis and her husband, Greg, took me in. I sang I’m Gonna Knock on Your Door at their wedding.
Another sister, Maryanne, and I are close. She is always the first to congratulate me. We didn’t have a TV when we were young and had to make do with whatever toys we had. We’d play backyard cricket together.
My first kiss was with Judy in Port Melbourne when I was 10. We would gather in a local park and play kiss chasey. She wanted to kiss me deeply and would suck my head in, like a tsunami was coming.
Friendship outweighs lust. Michelle and I were together for more than 30 years and have known each other for more than 50.
I had a crush on Deborah Harry from Blondie. When we got to support her in Perth, I was beside myself. I also loved Doris Day in Just Blew in from the Windy City.
When I was 15, I met a girl, Angela, who was two years younger than me. We fell in love and were on and off until we married when I was 20. Angela wore a long purple dress and I wore a green shirt, a black tie with polka dots and a yellow jacket. Angela had a good job, and I was kicking flies in the wind in a couple of bands.
I became a first-class machinist and would make clothes for Angela. First we lived with Phyllis, then in our own place in St Kilda. Angela was eight months pregnant when she fell out of a fourth-floor window. She survived, but lost our baby and had to learn to walk again. We had a lot of love for each other and were together for seven years.
I married Michelle, or Mickey as she likes to be called, in the 1970s. We were pals to begin with, and she taught me a lot about art. We have three children – Natalie, now 47, Harlan, 40, and Belle, 29. Ultimately, there was conflict. When you have success, you are scared to lose it, so showbiz kept me on the road and I missed a lot of birthdays. But friendship outweighs lust. Michelle and I were together for more than 30 years and have known each other for more than 50.
I had a few more relationships after that and was fortunate to have two more daughters. Charlie is 23, and her mother, Sarah Lyon, a hard-working woman I dated for a few years, has been wonderful bringing her up.
Later, I met Atlanta Coogan, who still sings in the Black Sorrows occasionally. Our daughter, 14-year-old Aurora, is a great singer like her mum.
I dated Angela Clark, a jewellery designer, when I walked into her shop in Fitzroy North and we connected creatively. That was a lovely time.
In relationships you have to walk together, you have to be best friends before you can be lovers. For it to work, you can’t hide anything.
I am not in a relationship now, which I’m a bit sad about. I am not a player and have never been; I don’t even know how to ask a girl out for a date. I am still learning at my age, and women are my teachers.
Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows are touring in March and April.
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Jane Rocca is a regular contributor to Sunday Life Magazine, Executive Style, The Age EG, columnist and features writer at Domain Review, Domain Living’s Personal Space page. She is a published author of four books.Connect via X or email.
