Reg Lindsay born 7 July 1929

Reg Lindsay was the premier international star to emerge from the Australian country music renaissance that followed World War II. The first Aussie ever to appear at Nashville's landmark Grand Ole Opry, he was later awarded his own plaque along Music City's Walkway of Stars, and effectively paved the way for contemporary Australian country sensations like Keith Urban and Kasey Chambers. 

Born in the Sydney suburb of Waverley in 1929, Lindsay's parents were Jim and Ellen Lindsay. He was two years of age when his father gave him a harmonica which he quickly mastered. His father taught him to play, "The Wheel on the Wagon Is Broke", on harmonica by the age of four. He then learned how to play the banjo, mandolin, guitar and fiddle. After Sydney he grew up in Parkes and then Adelaide. His aunt Anne gave him a guitar when he was 15. 

After leaving school (Adelaide, South Australia), despite his aptitude for music he initially worked for the Department of Agriculture and studied wool classing. As a teenager his career ambition was to become a stockman and learned how to shear sheep. Later he reflected, "The outback has always been romantic to me. People of that ilk have always been romantic. We have the longest cattle drives in the world, you know. I was scheduled to go into a reservation in the north-west of South Australia, but I ended up as a jackeroo in Broken Hill instead." 

Reg with Joan Clark

After he twisted his leg in a rodeo accident, he recuperated at his parents' home in Adelaide for several weeks in 1950. He was listening to country music on 2SM with Tim McNamara promoting a radio talent quest. In November 1950 Lindsay travelled to Sydney via a motorcycle to compete, in the following year and claimed top honours, winning a recording deal with the Rodeo Records label. Lindsay's profile also increased in 1952 when Sydney's 2CH named him to host his own country music radio showcase -- later that year, The Reg Lindsay Show jumped to rival 2SM, where it aired for a decade and launched the careers of a number of Australian country talents. 

In 1954 Lindsay wed Heather McKean, one-half of the popular duo the McKean Sisters, whose own Aussie country classics include "The Gymkhana Yodel,""Yodel Down the Valley," and "The Morning Mail”. Reg Lindsay's first tour came about in January 1955 when he was chosen as the headliner for the Wilf Carter tour. About two weeks in the tour Wilf Carter fell ill and had to return to the US, and Reg continued the tour as 'The Reg Lindsay Show'. Reg Lindsay continued issuing singles and presenting a radio show into the early 1960s.

Lindsay made the leap to television in 1964, relocating to Brisbane to host The Reg Lindsay Country Hour. The series aired for eight years. By 1966 the show was broadcast throughout Australia with Lindsay, as host, flying in from Sydney to Adelaide each week. In that year he issued a single, "They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around". He travelled to the United States in 1968, to record material for his TV show, while there he was asked to appear on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. He was so successful in this debut he was invited back for the ultimate encore, the Saturday night show. Reg was the first Australian ever to do so and was the first of many Grand Ole Opry appearances, dividing his time between North America and Australia for more than a decade. 

Reg Lindsay was best known for his single, "Armstrong" (March 1971), a tribute to the historic 1969 moon landing by American astronauts, particularly Neil Armstrong. It peaked at No. 6 on the Go-Set National Top 60 and remained in the charts for 16 weeks. Lindsay was no slouch as a composer,  writing more than 500 songs during the course of his career and recording roughly 60 albums -- his other hits include "July, You're a Woman,""Silence on the Line," and "Empty Arms Hotel." In 1988 Reg married his second wife Roslyn Winfield. In 1989, Lindsay was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the nation's musical culture. 

In January 1995 he had a brain hemorrhage and in the following month he underwent surgery to remove the related brain aneurysm. He had a heart attack in January 1996 and had triple bypass surgery. A series of strokes followed, Roslyn observed, "He had lots of seizures, and it was very, very tough for him for many years, trying to get those seizures under control." Lindsay spent the remainder of his life in and out of hospitals, finally succumbing to pneumonia on August 5, 2008 at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, New South Wales, aged 79.

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Here’s a clip of Reg singing “Good Sensation” from circa 1979.