She wrote me letters when she went to the Victorian College of the Arts, and once sent me a tape of her dorm buddy playing cello. I then started learning cello at the age of eight in Western Australia. I played that until I got a guitar at 13. It was my older sister Donna and my older brother Brian who put their pocket money together to get me a guitar.

I formed my first band, Johnny Diesel & the Injectors in 1986, before going solo. When my music career took off, I suddenly found myself a heartthrob with pictures of me inside magazines. I had no control over it.

In 1987, I relocated to Sydney and met my wife Jep through Jimmy Barnes. She is four years older than me. Jimmy asked me to be in the video clip for Too Much Ain’t Enough Love and Jep was in charge of the wardrobe. Jep and I were friends for a long time and I didn’t want to ruin it; even though Jimmy and Jane Barnes were trying to play cupid. There was a point I was going on tour and had to say my goodbyes and Jep started crying. That’s when I thought we were more than friends. Note to self: this might be something deeper!

I was at the Roosevelt Hotel in LA, after playing at the Whisky a Go Go the night before, and had toured the world twice before when the epiphany hit. It was 3am and I thought nothing will make me happier than spending my life with Jep. I rang to tell her I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, to which she replied, “Oh, that’s nice.”

The penny dropped that I was not your typical “will you marry me” kind of guy. The next day we spoke again and pretty much started organising a wedding. We married in 1989 and have two children, Jessie, 32, and Lily, 28.