Breaking his arm in seven places lead Kevin “Sullo” Sullivan to reassess whether working in the police force was really for him.
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He had spent decades dedicating himself to the force including time with the bomb squad, dealing with serious crime as a forensic detective, and picking up the pieces from major disasters like the Waterfall train disaster in 2003 and the Thredbo landslide in 1997.
For years people would tell him he should have been a singer, but having invested so much of his life in the force he had become “nervous”.
That changed when he had an accident.
After two years off work due to his arm injury, the Gerringong resident decided in 2011 he still had dreams to fulfil.
“You’re never too old to chase your dream,” he told the Mercury. “Life dictates a certain path for all of us, and sometimes you can change it and sometimes you cant.
“I had a career in the police … but I always played music.”
The 55-year-old is really taking the bull by the horns and has just released his second album Belonging, and is a finalist for two categories in The Southern Stars – Australian Independent Country Music Awards.
His career has so far been self-funded, the singer-songwriter spending a “crazy” amount of money on session musicians, studio time and actually pressing his CDs.
Being stay-at-home dad to a toddler and two other children under 10 gives the singer-songwriter a bit of time to make some cold calls in the hope he will score a record deal.
“I’m really going for it, so much so I contacted this huge management company today,” he said. “Being a bit older you don’t have as much shame, you think ‘I’m just going to have a go’.”
This particular company have Keith Urban and Travis Collins on their books but that didn’t phase Sullivan who managed to speak to the owner of the company.
“He didn’t know me and actually gave me 15 minutes of his time – it was a ‘no’,” he laughed. “He said ‘you need this and you need that’ … I just tried to take something positive out of it, so I thanked him for his time.”
You can catch Sullivan playing locally around Kiama, Shellharbour and Nowra. Interstate he’ll be appearing at Brisbane’s Ekka agricultural show, the Gympie Music Muster and the Mildura Country Music Festival.
You can also find him on Spotify and iTunes. www.kevinsullivanmusic.com