Kiwi rock legend Larry Morris is coming to play at the Whanganui Musicians' Club next Saturday.
He reckons it must be about 20 years ago that he last played here during the Masters' Games.
"I hadn't been back in New Zealand very long then," he says.
Morris is speaking from his Auckland home where he cares for his parents - Lister, 96, and John, 89, who both have dementia.
Steve Braunias interviewed the family for a NZ Herald feature in May this year and Morris talked about "sticking fat" with the parents who have always stuck by him.
Sticking fat is a prison term for staying loyal which Morris picked up during the five years he served for possession of LSD after he was arrested in 1972.
The prison term effectively ended his NZ musical career, which had seen him score big hits with his band Larry's Rebels during the second half of the 1960s and later as a solo performer with songs like
Do What you Gotta Do
and
Everybody's Girl
.
After prison, Morris headed across the Tasman and later to the USA where he lived for 10 years.
"I came back for Tommy Adderley when I heard he was dying in 1993," says Morris.
Adderley was a NZ musician who had hits with songs like I Just Don't Understand and Love is Bigger Than the Whole Wide World in the 1960s and 70s.
"Tommy was my great mate and I knew his parents were still living in Birmingham.
"His kids had never met their English grandparents so some of us got together and played gigs to raise money to send them over there."
"The band that I formed then are still with me and they are a great bunch of musicians."
Morris's American wife went back to her homeland and left him to raise their two young sons.
Now 69, he is happily married to Gloria, who helps him care for his parents, and he has a new release - That CD 13.
"I didn't like playing the old Larry's Rebels stuff for a long time but my mate Ritchie Pickett said I owe it to the teenagers who bought my records back in the 60s to play those songs."
The man once called a degenerate by former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was later praised as a "true Kiwi music icon" by Prime Minister Helen Clark, who helped him re-enter New Zealand.
He says a Whanganui audience can expect to hear some good rock and blues from the Larry Morris Band featuring Richard Anaru (guitars and backing vocals), Rob Paterson (bass and backing vocals) and Leyton Greening on drums.
Larry Morris and his band play the Whanganui Musicians Club, Saturday September 9 at 8pm.