Vika Bull has loved Etta James' music for much of her life. So when the call came asking if she wanted to play the American soul-blues singer on stage, she wasn't about to say yes in a hurry.
Not helping was the fact that James - who died in early 2012 after a hard life - hadn't long passed away.
"I had to think long and hard about doing Etta because she's my idol," says the Tongan-Australian singer, best known as half of Vika and Linda, her harmony duo with her younger sister. "But if someone else had taken it on and sung it I would have been jealous and really cross. Because she's my favourite singer."
The result is the show At Last: The Etta James Story, created by the Sydney producers of tribute show The Man in Black, which had Tex Perkins channelling Johnny Cash.