The Johnny O'Keefe Story - by Vicky O'Keefe
          

 Vicky O’Keefe will never have to shout to be heard as an artist
but as the daughter of legendary rocker Johnny O’Keefe it’s always on the cards.

 The one-time Melbourne-based singer, who has been show casing her Dad’s greatest hits since the mid-1990s,
says she finally felt ready to commit her versions to record, putting down 12 tracks on the new album,
‘I’m Counting On You’ - featuring a duet with her late father.

 “One of the biggest regrets in my life was the sad fact that I never had the opportunity to perform on stage with my father,”
says Vicky. I was only 17 when he died. He was naturally my mentor and like other children of great entertainers,
was the reason for my decision to pursue a singing career.”

 The singer-songwriter, who spent the 1980s and ‘90s developing her own style, is happy to be mixing and matching JO’K and VO’K.

“I first did a tribute to dad back in 1996 but I think it was the advent of Shout! - The Musical,
which was the final catalyst for both the duet and the album,” says O’Keefe.
It was not until I was in the studio that I really began to think that the time was right to do this.

“It was a very special time for me, a very spiritual time,
because I felt that Dad was at my shoulder guiding me through the whole thing.”

O’Keefe says she doubts that she was emotionally prepared for such a venture a decade ago
but now feels more complete having at last performed with JO’K.

 “Looking back now, I realise I was emotionally unprepared for such a project 10 years ago,
but life goes on, circumstances change and I now feel more complete after the making of I’m Counting On You.”

 The Sydney-born professional musician and entertainer, as well as mum to six-year-old Melody, 
regards her father as an Australian Elvis Presley.

Vicky says song writing and performing would be her destiny - Destiny was the name of her first album -
but she had to go ‘underground’ in Melbourne in the 1980s. “When I went to Melbourne
I got into a lot of different bands with names that didn’t include O’Keefe and music such as Motown, Soul and Jazz.
That’s when I got my own style and seriously started writing.”

 Among the earliest was Keep The Candle Burning, a tribute to JO’K penned in 1986,
which along with Life Goes On, inspired by Vicky’s mum, can be heard on the new album.

 When Vicky was asked to present a tribute show to JO’K in 1996 the singer-songwriter had some reservations,
but not only because she was determined to maintain her own voice.

 “I felt it was a huge responsibility and I was aware that I had to do justice to Dad’s songs,” says Vicky.
In the end I agreed and I do feel as if it represented something in the way of an emotional reconciliation.”

Vicky has described herself as The Mild One but on stage they say things change and The Wild Child comes into her own.

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