When Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Stu Cook and his bandmates in Jackdawg sat down to create the Jackdawg album, they weren’t thinking of just any Australian singer. They were thinking of Chrissy Amphlett, the defiant, magnetic frontwoman of Divinyls whose voice, attitude and stage presence captivated audiences across the world in the 1980s and 90s.
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Jackdawg, the late-80s collaboration between Cook, John McFee and Keith Knudsen of The Doobie Brothers, recorded The Girl From Oz during sessions for their self-titled album, finally released this year through Liberation Hall. For Cook, the inspiration came directly from Keith Knudsen’s discovery of Divinyls on MTV.
“Keith came in one day raving about this incredible band and this amazing singer he’d just seen,” Cook told Noise11’s Paul Cashmere. “He said, ‘You’ve got to see this woman, she’s fierce.’ That became The Girl From Oz. It was our way of saluting Chrissy’s raw power.”
Chrissy Amphlett was born in Geelong, Victoria in 1959 and from an early age showed a flair for performance. Before she became the wild-hearted rock star who fronted Divinyls, Amphlett had already worked in theatre and film, including Monkey Grip in 1982, where she also performed the band’s music. She formed Divinyls in Sydney in 1980 with guitarist Mark McEntee and bassist Jeremy Paul, quickly earning a reputation as one of the most provocative and dynamic live acts in Australian rock.
Amphlett’s unfiltered stage persona, part danger, part theatre, became her trademark. Dressed in her signature school uniform, she mixed sexual energy with emotional volatility and disarming humour. It was a combination that made her impossible to ignore. Divinyls went on to record six albums between 1982 and 1996, with global success arriving in 1991 when I Touch Myself topped the Australian charts and reached No. 4 in the United States.
“Keith just loved that she didn’t hold anything back,” Cook recalled. “She was pure rock and roll, fearless and unapologetic. That energy really moved him, and when we wrote The Girl From Oz we wanted to capture that spirit – bold, wild and free.”
Jackdawg’s sessions took place in McFee’s converted tractor barn in rural California, far from the polished studios of Los Angeles. The trio, veterans of the 1970s American rock scene, had come together to write songs without rules or record company pressure. Cook described the environment as a songwriter’s workshop.
“We were doing it for the joy of the music,” he said. “If a song felt right, we kept it. If it didn’t, we moved on.”
That sense of creative liberation is woven through The Girl From Oz, which plays like a playful love letter to the kind of raw, uncompromising female performer Amphlett embodied. The track sits comfortably alongside other songs on Jackdawg, such as Bayou Rebel and It’s About Time, which balance swamp rock grit with West Coast polish.
For Australian audiences, the connection runs even deeper. Amphlett’s cousin was 1960s pop icon Little Pattie, and her own influence extended across generations of women in Australian music. Her fearless stagecraft helped pave the way for acts like Suze DeMarchi, Sarah McLeod and Katy Steele. Even after Divinyls disbanded in 1996, Amphlett continued performing, notably starring as Judy Garland in The Boy From Oz alongside Todd McKenney and later returning to the role for the arena spectacular with Hugh Jackman.
Amphlett’s death in 2013 from breast cancer and multiple sclerosis marked the end of an era, but her spirit continues to inspire through the I Touch Myself Project, a breast cancer awareness campaign that features ten female Australian artists, including Olivia Newton-John, Deborah Conway and Sarah Blasko.
For Stu Cook, discovering that Australian connection during his Noise11 interview brought the story full circle. “I didn’t know Chrissy was related to Little Pattie,” he said. “That’s amazing, two strong Australian women from one family, both making their mark in music. It makes The Girl From Oz even more meaningful.”
Decades after it was written, The Girl From Oz now stands as an unexpected tribute from one generation of rock legends to another.
Jackdawg’s self-titled album, featuring The Girl From Oz, is available from 24 October 2025 through Liberation Hall Records.
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