Interview by Angela Croudace
It is hard to believe that the current line-up of the Hard-Ons (Blackie, Murray, Ray and Tim) have been together long enough to be putting out album number three, but it has to be true, because they are!
I Like You A Lot Getting Older - which is out on October 4 - follows 2021's ARIA top 5 debuting I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff's Been Taken and last year's Top 30 debuting Ripper '23 and coincides with the band's 40th Anniversary Australian Tour PLUS the premiere of a new feature length documentary, The Most Australian Band Ever.
These Aussie punk legends show no signs of slowing down. While I Like You A Lot Getting Older is undeniably a pop album, Blackie humorously labels it “Pop for old farts.” It’s the kind of pop that embodies the Hard-Ons' signature style - not the Taylor Swift variety as he made clear!
Despite having so much going on, guitarist Peter Black (Blackie) found time to speak with HEAVY's newest contributor Angela Croudace.
We start by asking if he can actually get his head around the fact the Hard-Ons are about to celebrate 40 years as a band.
"I'm that old?", he laughed, "Excellent. No, I can't believe it. When I actually stop to think about it - which I never do. I never stop and I never think. Those two things, what are they? But when I do stop to think about it, it's kind of like, far out, that's a long bloody time."
Angela brings up the new doco, The Most Australian Band Ever.
"I don't know anything about it," Blackie laughed. "We're not making it. I call him Johnno, but Jonathan Sequeira is making it and he made the phenomenal doco on Radio Birdman, which I loved and have seen four times. So when he approached us and said I'd like to make a doco we all said shit yeah. The dude that made the Birdman doco, for sure. So I'll see it when you see it. If you wanna go see it, and I'm sure in his hands it's gonna be quite fun."