From Dickson College to Coachella: Keli Holiday’s Adam Hyde pays tribute to a teacher who helped make his dreams come true
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With a Triple J Hottest 100 Top 2 song under his belt and a new Keli Holiday album out next month, ARIA award-winning musician Adam Hyde (also half of DJ duo Peking Duk) says he owes some of that success to his Dickson College music teacher.
Adam, whose Keli Holiday single “Dancing2” made the impressive number two spot in the nation’s biggest music vote, has consistently given some of the credit for his career to his college teacher, whom he has shouted out on social media over the years.
We felt inspired by the story enough to track this teacher down, discovering he is John Tucker, who crossed paths with Adam at Dickson College sometime in the late 2000s.
It turns out that while Adam didn’t fit the mould of a conventional student, John also didn’t fit the mould of a conventional teacher.
John Tucker, now retired, but still playing guitar
John taught the young Adam – then a mohawked skater who had left the constraints of his Catholic school Daramalan College for the more autonomous public college system – a music course focussed on preparing students for the realities of the industry.
It’s fair to say that Adam’s school experience had not been entirely positive to that point.
“Due to previous teachers that I’d had throughout school, I believed I could never do anything, let alone anything to do with music which is something I’d been in love with since I can remember,” he says.
But this changed when he met John. Adam describes him as “a man who believed in me and my friends (including the other half of Peking Duk, Reuben Styles). Although we weren’t the most studious bunch, we did have heart and ideas. He saw that and he nurtured that and thanks to him I now find myself being able to make music every day, as a passion, a hobby, and as career.”
John, who is now 76, retired in 2010, and is now living on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, says he cannot recall Adam specifically, but was both shocked and touched to hear he had been singled out as having made a difference.
“That is always a pretty special thing for any teacher to hear.”
“I’ve had hundreds, if not thousands of students come through my life, and I am guessing that Adam was one of my students that I never had sleepless nights worrying about. He had his ideas and went for it. It was great for me to have those kids who could take their own path forward as it meant I could spend more time with those students who were struggling.”
John with his wife, former Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker
John, who picked up a classical guitar as a child and decided to pursue a music degree at the Canberra School of Music in the late 1970s despite his father’s complete opposition, is something of an accidental teacher. He spent some time working at the School of Music theatre in the technical department before turning to teaching to help support him and his wife, former ACT Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker, while they raised three children.
While he did not always enjoy the strictures of the school system, John loved his students.
“I remember that music class at Dickson College was supposed to have around 15 students, but it was so popular it was double that and they kept asking me to squeeze more in,” he says.
He relished teaching music because in an academic environment it was the subject where the students had “the greatest chance to find themselves”.
“I never stood up in class and said, ‘I’m going to teach you music’. Every kid already knows what music is and it’s very personal, so it would be incredible arrogant for me to stand up and teach over the top of them.
“It was always important to me to honour the students’ autonomy, to find out where they were at and to help them make their own way forward – that way I had a workmate and not an opponent.”
He wished more students had experiences like Adam’s – not least the fact that “Dancing 2” as an entirely independent release has hit number 1 on the ARIA Australian Singles Chart, number 1 on the Spotify Viral Charts across Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, and number 2 on the UK Viral Chart. The track also topped the TikTok Viral charts, reached the top 2 on Shazam, scored an ARIA Award for Best Video, and earned Keli a nomination for Music Artist of the Year at the TikTok Awards.
Since we tracked him down, John has been able to familiarise himself with Adam’s music and said it was a thrill to listen to.
“I am just so genuinely happy for him, I really am. It is fantastic to learn that he is out there, expressing himself and making his music. That’s really what it is all about.”
Adam, who has played stages from Coachella to Lollapalooza, says of his former teacher “I owe more than words can describe to this man.”
“He is forever in my heart and he is with me with everything I do and the thing that separates teachers like John Tucker from others is belief and love and proper nurturing. What I’d like to say to John Tucker is ‘thank you, eternally’.”
If you want to hear Adam Hyde’s latest musical expression, his new Keli Holiday album “Capital Fiction” will be released on February 13 and you can pre-order it here.
Adam Hyde photographed by Mitch Lowe.
