Crowe's beautiful mind turns to music

Russell Crowe

We adored Russell Crowe in a skirt, admired his beautiful mind, then flinched when his fists took on millionaires (Eric Watson) and bellboys (at a New York hotel).

But fear not, New Zealand's most acclaimed movie actor has found his redemption - in music.

"Music can save your life," the Oscar-winning actor and frontman for new band The Ordinary Fear of God told the Herald on Sunday this week.

Though Crowe, not known for reticence in crowing about his talents, is quick to admit he's not the world's greatest songwriter. At Auckland's Skycity Theatre on Thursday he'll be doing it mostly as a form of personal therapy.

"I still cling to the naive belief that music can change the world but I'm pretty sure it won't be me that writes that song," he says.

As a child in Mt Roskill, Crowe says he was inspired by the friends and neighbours who sang at his family gatherings - he was given his first, much-loved guitar, at the age of 6. Later chart-toppers Dave Dobbyn, Andrew Fagan and Graham Brazier fuelled his passion for pop; at 19 he wanted to be a star - but of stage not screen.

He slicked his hair, called himself Russ Le Roq and made an album or two. They didn't sell then but those early records now go for upwards of $1000 on eBay - though the buyers probably aren't collecting them for the songs.

Crowe says he's always been in awe of lyricists who are good with a turn of phrase - Bob Geldof, Billy Bragg and, of course, Neil Finn - but his songs are more about "self- evident truths" and observation. On his latest album, he's penned a tribute to his friend, Irish hell-raising actor Richard Harris, who died in 2002.

"It is a choral requiem for a dead friend. A tribute, a marker stone and a prayer," he says. "I miss Richard, I loved him very much. I loved his audacity, his humour and his wisdom."

Crowe and actress wife Danielle Spencer both make records; though they met on the set of one of Crowe's early Australian films. Spencer recently released her own album with a video single, Tickle Me, directed by her husband. "Dani is a wonderful songwriter and, apart from her grace and beauty, she's a video director's dream," Crowe says.

Sounds deep - is it all that serious at the Crowe farm in New South Wales? Toddler son Charlie apparently loves dad singing Nick Cave's Breathless to send him to sleep at night and Crowe says: "I would find a world without music unbearable. It can save your life and charge your senses and imagination".

Crowe's first band was called 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, now another OFOG name - what is that about? "The ordinary fear of God is a simple belief and respect for powers greater than yourself," he says. "It is also uncannily the same acronym, which is convenient because we didn't have to respray the roadcases."

Russell Crowe and TOFOG play at Leigh's Sawmill Cafe on Thursday.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY