Rebuilding from the Rubble: Beccy Cole on Healing, Humour, and Living Out Loud
Photo by DUNCAN TOOMBS
For over 30 years, Beccy Cole has been delighting Australian music fans with her unique brand of true entertainment. The South Australian star’s glowing warmth, husky tones, bawdy sense of humour and hundred-watt smile have helped make her one of the nation’s most loved and celebrated artists.
With eleven Golden Guitars (Country Music Awards of Australia) to her name, Beccy is the most awarded Golden Guitar Female Artist Of The Year recipient, having won the prestigious title 5 times from 2001, 2002, 2007, 2012, and again in 2019. She also has multiple ARIA Top 10 Country albums, Top 40 mainstream releases, a Top 10 DVD, three gold-certified albums and more than a dozen #1 Australian country singles and stands among Australia’s most successful singer-songwriters.
In 2022, Beccy was inducted into country music’s Roll of Renown at the 50th Golden Guitar Awards, and in June 2023 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to country music. She remains one of Australia’s most sought-after live performers, renowned for taking audiences to fever pitch - and quite often, stomach-clutching laughter.
There’s a moment in every queer person’s story where courage meets vulnerability, where tears mingle with laughter, and where hope rises, sometimes shaking, from the ashes. Beccy Cole, legendary singer-songwriter, queer trailblazer, and all-around “shit magnet” (her own words!), has been living - and singing - that story for decades. Her new EP, Through the Haze, isn’t just music. It’s a collection of stepping stones across rivers of heartbreak, survival, and self-renewal.
We sat down with Beccy Cole to talk about the magic of music and why she’s now “girl sober,” with a shiny new miniature Groodle by her side.
“I Had a Broken Mind”- Turning Pain Into Power
After her most recent marriage breakup, Beccy Cole was, in her own words, “rebuilding rubble” 00:00:25. Even for someone who thought she’d seen it all when it came to heartbreak, this time was different: a fracture of the mind, not just the heart.
“The album definitely speaks to the sort of hard time that I had after my marriage breakup,” she shares. “I've had a lot of broken hearts in my life, but this is the first time I had a broken mind…The rebuilding of me personally was rebuilding rubble.” Some songs, Beccy Cole says, were written from the “wound,” others from the “scar” 00:01:02. All were necessary for her healing, and now, they’re connecting listeners everywhere. But don’t expect a pity party. This is, after all, the author of “Shit Magnet,” the cracking track that opens Through the Haze, and also stars on t-shirts, stickers, and, yes, magnets 00:04:16. “I needed to start the album with humour,” Becky Cole laughs. “I've always been able to laugh at myself. I call myself a shit magnet. There’s a song about that.”
She jokes: “I am now a do not disturbian. I’m retired from service, Silke! If you ever hear I'm getting married or I'm with another partner, there's something wrong. It's not true.” 00:04:34
Coming Out in the Spotlight: “I Wished I Had Done It Sooner”
If you came out anytime in the last two decades, chances are you know the feeling: anxiety, exhilaration, a longing for belonging. For Beccy Cole, coming out wasn’t just personal; it was national news.
She first came out to herself in 1999; publicly, on television, in 2012 00:01:18. Touring regional Australia back then, she feared the uncharted territory for queer people. But the response? “[I] was welcomed with open arms.” Beccy Cole may have wished she came out sooner, but in doing it publicly, she paved the way for lesbian and queer artists across Oz.
Heartbreak, Humour, and the Art of “Shit Magnet”
LOTL’s Silke summed it up perfectly: “Most artists that do talk about that, one of the best writings or the best work comes through difficult times.” Beccy agrees. Vulnerability, she says, is where the best art begins 00:02:34.
Losing and Finding Her Voice (Thanks to Horses)
In the aftermath of heartbreak, even picking up the guitar was “almost impossible” 00:04:50. Beccy spent months in a recovery facility, without even bringing her guitar. Yet, music eventually called her back.
And here’s where her story takes an unexpected, beautiful turn. Beccy Cole lost her singing voice, only to find it again, with a little help from some four-legged therapists.
“I got my voice back through equine therapy, through singing to the horses” 00:05:45. Sceptical at first, she quickly found that the horses “read” her, intuiting her state, and healing her trauma. “One of them was kind of nibbling on my fingers as I was strumming…I can hear that my voice was returning because I had lost it. I have a lot of gratitude to the horses, and I always thank every horse as I pass them now.” 00:07:26
Therapy, Sobriety, and Becoming “Girl Sober”
Healing isn’t linear and sometimes, resilience means outright reinvention. For Beccy, therapy became songwriting fodder, with her therapist credited in her album’s liner notes 00:03:13. “I've learned so much about myself, but also about humans and about how they work. This is through pretty intense therapy that I've had over the last 5 years now.”
Add to that a declaration many in the queer world will find both hilarious and relatable: “I was pretty girl obsessed for a long time. And now, I’m girl sober. And it’s probably been the making of me” 00:09:39.
A big part of that contentment? Her therapy dog, a miniature Groodle named Patsy. "It's all the love I've ever needed. It’s helped me to give up my absolute obsession with women that I've had all my life. That’s why I'm a ‘do-not-disturbian’. 00:09:16
All-Female Bands, Sober Touring, and Queer Sisterhood
On tour with her all-female (and very queer) band, Becc finds joy, empowerment, and a sense of chosen family. “Most of them are queer, some of them are not. We don’t discriminate. But they are so capable. The empowerment, not only being on stage, but getting to tour with them, and what we give each other in this world of music and art in general, is just so incredibly special” 00:11:12.
And while life on the road used to mean champagne and wild afterparties, these days it’s all about clarity, connection, and actual memories: “I think the best beauty product ever…is sobriety. I honestly believe if you’re trying to heal yourself from any trauma, you can’t do that unless you’re sober” 00:12:07. With age, wisdom and a few sober funerals, Beccy is more herself than ever.
Lessons from a Gardener and a Flower
Every queer love story has its metaphors, and on this album, Beccy found hers from Rosie O’Donnell, explaining her new song, “The Gardener and the Flower” 00:15:36. In relationships, she says, “One has to be the gardener and the other the flower. And the most important part about that is that you have to learn to be able to swap roles.” 00:16:01 Unbalanced care, she notes, leads to disappointment, no matter how much you want things to work out.
This secure-attachment anthem joins tongue-in-cheek tracks like “More Cows Than Cowgirls,” which humorously captures the secret dreams of many a young queer girl growing up in a hetero world 00:17:55.
Dolly Parton, Queer Inspiration, and Radical Acceptance
You can’t talk about resilience and acceptance in the queer community without invoking Dolly Parton, country music’s queer fairy godmother. Beccy met Dolly three times across her life, and she still asks, “What would Dolly do?” 00:19:33, trying to model her radical kindness and open-heartedness.
Dolly, she says, could bring together everyone “Bible Belt hardened Christians with drag queens and LGBTQI, who she supported like no other…Her acceptance. And even Trump was saying she was wonderful” 00:20:16. For Beccy Cole and so many others, Dolly’s “wand” of generosity was a blessing. “[I] feel like she waved her wand on me in those [moments]. And I've been better for it whenever I follow her teachings. I sound like she’s Jesus. When I follow the teachings of Dolly Parton, I’m a better person, right?” 00:21:01
Loving Loud, Laughing Louder
At 50-something, Beccy isn’t just surviving; she’s thriving, singing out, and giving visibility to queer women of every generation. There are detours and scars, heartbreak and hysterics (“girl sober” and all). But there’s also tremendous hope, humour, and proof that the rebuilding really is worth it.
Through the Haze is streaming everywhere, with tour details, playlists, and plenty of empowerment. As Beccy proves, the world needs more out-and-proud lesbians, more honest stories, more laughter in the rubble and sometimes, more singing to horses.
CATCH BECCY COLE LIVE IN 2026
For tickets and further information, visit beccycole.com
Fri 18 Sep Hamilton Hotel, Brisbane, QLD
Sat 19 Sep Racehorse Hotel, Ipswich, QLD
Sun 20 Sep Savvy Squire Hotel, Mooloolaba, QLD
Fri 16 Oct Groundwater Festival, Gold Coast, QLD
Sat 16 Jan Tamworth Country Music Festival, West Tamworth Leagues, NSW
Fri 22 Jan Tamworth Country Music Festival, West Tamworth Leagues, NSW
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