The 61-year-old shot to fame in 1979 when he performed Beautiful People on Countdown despite having both his arms in casts after he was hit by a car crossing Swanston Street.

Australian Crawl then became one of the country’s most iconic bands of the 1980s with hits like Reckless, Boys Light Up, Downhearted and Oh No Not You Again. 

Reyne himself doesn’t spend too much time reminiscing about the early days though.

He keeps a photo taken with blues legend John Lee Hooker in 1991 on his piano at home in the Mornington Peninsula. The pair were the only two signings to a boutique record company met briefly at the label’s welcome party in New York.

“I was too nervous and starstruck to start off with, but he was one of my heroes, so I was really pleased to have a photo with him,” Reyne said.

But otherwise, Reyne said, he prefers to live in the present, which involves a weekly routine much closer to the life of an everyday person than expected.

Reyne plays shows on the weekend, enjoys a glass of wine on Sunday night and makes a habit of stopping by Coles on the way to catching up with his teenage daughter Molly, a university student in Melbourne, to “make sure the fridge is stocked”. 

And while his acoustic show presents an excursion in nostalgia, Reyne joked he barely remembers writing the classics hits. 

“I like playing those old songs… and I know I was in that band because there's recorded evidence of it, but I don't really remember much about it,” he said. 

“I've done it for 40 years now... and when I listen to something I recorded in a studio in 1979 I just think that I didn’t even know what I was doing then – I was just yelling.”

But Saturday night’s gig will be a trip down memory lane for Reyne as well – his younger brother, David, had an old girlfriend who lived in Warrnambool, meaning Reyne spent plenty of time in the coastal city. 

“I knew her quite well so I feel connected to the place in an indirect way,” he said. 

All of which seems like the perfect setting for the second leg of his ‘Crawl to Now’ tour – an 18-stop regional run with Josh Owen, which he describes as a “comprehensive look at the past unto the present”.

“I’ve sifted through all of the Australian Crawl material with the intention of performing it ‘songbook’ style,” Reyne said.   

James Reyne plays at the Lighthouse Theatre on February 9. Tickets are $60.