Background and career
Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish-Australian musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of the band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Hay is a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Hay has made appearances in films such as Cosi (1996) and in television shows such as The Resident, The Larry Sanders Show, JAG, The Mick Molloy Show, A Million Little Things, and Scrubs. In Scrubs, he performs an acoustic version of the Men at Work hit "Overkill" in the first episode of the second season, "My Overkill", along with a bit of the acoustic version of "Down Under" during a cutaway of the second episode of the seventh season, "My Hard Labor." His music also appeared in the television series What About Brian, The Black Donnellys, Cane, and the BBC medical drama Casualty.
Colin James Hay was born on 29 June 1953 in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland to James and Isabella Hay. In 1967, when he was 14, the Hays emigrated to Melbourne in Australia. His parents owned a small music shop; his father, a piano tuner, had been a stage singer and dancer in Glasgow.
In 1978, Hay met Ron Strykert and they formed an acoustic duo. In 1979, Hay and Strykert added Jerry Speiser and Greg Ham and started composing songs for what would become Men at Work. The band released their debut studio album, Business as Usual, in 1981, which was followed by Cargo (1983) and Two Hearts (1985) before breaking up in January 1986. In 1986, Hay joined as guest vocalist with the Incredible Penguins for a cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", a charity project for research on little penguins, which peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report in December 1985.
Following the break-up of Men at Work in 1986, Hay released his debut single "Hold Me" in January 1987. The song peaked at number 40 on the Kent Music Report. His debut studio album, Looking for Jack was released in January 1987 and peaked at number 58. Hay relocated to Los Angeles in 1989. He settled in the Topanga region of the city and has resided in the United States since. In January 2016, he became a US citizen. In March 1990, Hay released "Into My Life", the lead single from his second studio album, Wayfaring Sons, which was released in April 1990. Neither single nor album reached the ARIA top 100. The album was credited to the Colin Hay Band, which consisted of Gerry Hale, Paul Gadsby and Robert Dillon. In 1992, Hay released the acoustic album Peaks & Valleys. The album featured Hay's sister, Carol on vocals.
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1994, Hay was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as a member of Men at Work. In 1994, Hay established his own recording label, Lazy Eye Records, and released his fourth studio album, Topanga. In 1996, Hay reunited with Men at Work and toured South America, which led to the live Men at Work album, Brazil. In October 1998, Hay released his fifth studio album, Transcendental Highway and in 1999 recorded and released the song "Misty Bay" with his girlfriend, Cecilia Noël. On 1 October 2000, Hay performed with Men at Work at the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. In 2001, Hay released his sixth studio album, Going Somewhere. In 2002, Hay released his seventh studio album Company of Strangers and the video album Live at the Continental recorded in 2000. In July 2003, Hay released his eighth studio album, Man @ Work, re-recording some Men at Work hits and his solo songs, including a reimagined version of "Down Under" recorded with Hay's wife, Cecilia Noël, described as "more carnivale than outback". Hay toured North America with former Beatle Ringo Starr, as a member of his Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In 2004, Hay launched his one-man show named Man at Work, a mixture of songs and stories.
In 2006 Hay provided his voice for one of the characters in the animated film The Wild. In April 2007, Hay released his ninth studio album, Are You Lookin' at Me?. In 2008, Hay played the role of Nick at the horror movie The Uninvited. In May 2009, Hay performed at the Artist for the Arts Foundation benefit at Barnum Hall, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, California. Performing alongside Curt Smith of Tears for Fears, Fee Waybill of the Tubes, Venice, and over 70 members of the Santa Monica High School Orchestra and Girls Choir, the benefit helped to provide funds for the continuation of music education in public schools. In August 2009, Hay released his tenth studio album, American Sunshine. In 2010, Hay released the live album, Live at the Corner, filmed in 2007 at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. In August 2010, Hay performed in Missoula, Montana with a Los Angeles roots rock band named Patrolled By Radar. In May 2011, Hay released his eleventh studio album Gathering Mercury. In 2011, Hay commented on his early solo career, stating, "After Men at Work, for the better part of a decade, I was stumbling around being unfocused. It was pre-internet; I really had to try to find my audiences by going out on tour. Men at Work really didn't build a foundational audience. We came in as a pop band with enormous radio success; once that goes away and the band breaks up the audience tends to go away with it. You're left with what you want to make of it. When you start out doing those tours, you start again [and] you tend not to attract a very big number of people. I'd play to a hundred people or sometimes less". In December 2013, Hay announced on his website that he was done touring "for the time being" and would spend 2014 writing and recording. In February 2015, Hay released his twelfth studio album, Next Year People. The album was preceded by the single "Trying to Get to You". On 4 August 2015, Colin Hay: Waiting for my Real Life, a documentary film about Hay, debuted at the Melbourne International Film Festival. On 27 January 2017, he released the first single, "A Thousand Million Reasons", from his thirteenth studio album Fierce Mercy, released in March 2017. Fierce Mercy debuted at number 44 on the ARIA chart, becoming his second solo chart entry in Australia. The album was promoted with his segments on Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery and Sunday Night. Also in 2017, Hay released his first audiobook, Aesop's Fables with Colin Hay, published by Devault-Graves Digital Editions, for which he narrated 24 of Aesop's Fables written by author Tom Graves.
