Joe Cocker had a small confession to make to the Taranaki Daily News yesterday.
He couldn't quite place New Plymouth, though he did perform at the Bowl of Brooklands in 1998.
"Well God forgive me – so we're talking New Zealand right? I'm used to Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. New Plymouth it doesn't ring a bell," he said.
Perhaps Cocker can be forgiven the New Plymouth blank spot, given his age (66) and a hard-lived life in the rock world since he became a sensation at the Woodstock festival in 1969.
Cocker told the Taranaki Daily News yesterday and there has always been something that he loves about New Zealand, Christchurch in particular.
"At one time I thought it would be a nice place to retire.
"Until you got that earthquake earlier this year," he said.
"That must have been quite a shake up, when you're living in paradise and suddenly you get whacked like that."
Cocker is taking a break for Christmas after the European leg of his Hard Knocks tour and will be heading to New Zealand in January. He will give concerts in Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Wellington, Auckland, New Plymouth and Napier.
The tour is named after his latest album and he says it is an appropriate title.
"I think anyone who has made it through 60 odd years in rock 'n' roll has taken a few hard knocks, whether it is love affairs or drugs or whatever.
"It is just amazing to have come through all this and still be making music," he said.
Cocker knows full well the toll a rock `n' roll lifestyle can take having suffered from heroin and alcohol addiction.
Cocker says he has no plans of retiring and does not see the point of doing a final tour such as other artists do.
"Maybe in 20 years I might still want to keep rocking you never know."
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