"I was in the area, and there was a game of tennis going on. So, I just walked on in," he said.
"I'm very much looking forward to it. I just hope they like country music in Carterton."
Wilson Dixon is the Stetson-wearing, shamelessly redneck alter ego of comedian Jesse Griffin, whose rambling commentary on the human condition and jabs at Kiwi conventions have made him a hit on the New Zealand comedy circuit.
When Griffin spoke to the Times-Age, he answered questions as the deadpan Dixon, delving into the colourful world he has created for his comic persona - such as his upbringing in the small Colorado mining town of Cripple Creek, his eccentric family and his introduction to country music via his great-grandmother.
"My grandma was an old Dutch lady, and she taught me how to play the fiddle," he said, in his Dixon-esque twang.
"I used to sit on her knee and she'd play me all these old Dutch folk songs. I don't know if you've ever heard any Dutch music, but the songs are either all about cheese or people trying to stop their houses getting flooded."
On stage, Dixon sings about family life in Cripple Creek - including his two brothers named Denis, his sister who lives in a trailer park and his nudist uncle - his ex-wife Maureen and his bitter enemy Andrew - who happens to be his pet horse.
"He's a pain in the ass," he said.
"He was causing all these accidents, because he stands up on his hind legs and chases cars down the road. When he dies, I'm going to get a nice little pony that doesn't think it's a human."
He also enjoys waxing philosophical with the audience, and musing about the quirks of existence.
For example, Life, one of his most popular ballads, compares living to a salmon swimming upstream - "hard work, and sometimes you get eaten by bears" - and the movie Titanic - "long, and you know how it ends".
"I mean, have you ever seen a salmon go swimming upstream?" he said.
"It's fighting against the river the whole time. And then, just when it gets to the end, this bear reaches out his paw and snaffles it up.
"As for Titanic, I swear it took me three days to watch that movie. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion."
Dixon said his Kiwi audiences have been "very kind" to him, and was pleased with his reception at events such as the New Zealand International Comedy Festival and the Crunchie Comedy Gala - but admits he was sometimes bemused by the audience's laughter.
"I don't think of [my songs], as comedy. I just think of them as country songs.
"Maybe I'm reminding them of something they're experiencing. Someone told me once funny things are things that are true. I guess my songs are so true that people find them funny."
And New Zealanders?
"They change their minds really quickly. It's so strange when people say, 'Yeah nah.'
"They're agreeing with you, and they change their mind half a second later. I don't get it."
Wilson Dixon will be performing on Saturday at the Carterton Events Centre.
