Ted LeGarde (1931–2018) and Tom LeGarde (1931–2021), ‘The LeGarde Twins’, were early pioneers of country music. Born in Mackay, North Queensland, they began singing and playing guitar as young boys. At age fifteen, the twins left home, nurturing their talent on the Australian rodeo circuit while also working as professional rodeo riders. Famous for their matching outfits, knife throwing, whip cracking and rope spinning, the twins had a string of hits and were known as ‘Australia’s yodelling stockmen’. After touring with Hopalong Cassidy in 1954, the twins moved to Canada and then Hollywood, performing on variety shows and hosting their own TV series. They settled in Nashville, Tennessee, regularly performing and releasing several albums. The twins returned briefly to Sydney in the 1960s and operated a country music venue in Paddington, importing Marty Robbins, Speedy West and Lorne Greene to perform, before returning to the US and appearing on TV shows, including Network and Star Trek. In the 1990s, they opened the LeGarde Twins Country Music Theatre in Hendersonville, Tennessee, before relocating to the Quality Inn Hall of Fame Hotel. Inducted into the Tamworth Country Music Hall of Fame in 1987, in 2013 they sensationally appeared at the Foxtel Country Music Channel festival in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. It was their 82nd birthday, and, hailed as Australia’s first successful country music exports to the USA, they received the CMC Lifetime Achievement Award.
