For the next 40 years that was what he remained, invariably upstaging anyone brave enough and/or privileged enough to perform alongside him as he progressed from country boy to rock and roll revivalist to prog rocker to honky-tonk hero to prolific songwriter.
When Ritchie Pickett doused his piano with lighter fluid and lit it at the Norfolk Island Country Music Festival in 2001, he didn’t anticipate the heat generated would burn a hole in the marquee and cost the organisers their hefty bond.
In the mid-1980s, Ritchie Pickett’s song ‘The Choice’ was put on hold by Cher’s management but it came to nothing.