Jim Keays

Who is Jim Keays?

James "Jim" Keays is an Australian musician who fronted rock band The Masters Apprentices as singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica-player during 1965–1972, and subsequently had a solo career including leading Jim Keays' Southern Cross. The Masters Apprentices had Top 20 hits on the Go-Set National Singles Charts with "Undecided", "Living in a Child's Dream", "5:10 Man", "Think about Tomorrow Today", "Turn Up Your Radio" and "Because I Love You". He also wrote for the teen newspaper, Go-Set, as its Adelaide correspondent in 1970 and its London correspondent in 1973. The band reformed periodically, including in 1987–1988 and again subsequently. Keays, as a member of The Masters Apprentices, was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1998. He published his memoirs, His Master's Voice: The Masters Apprentices: The bad boys of sixties rock 'n' roll in 1999.

From 2000, he has performed in Cotton Keays & Morris alongside other former 1960s artists, Darryl Cotton and Russell Morris. In July 2007, Keays was diagnosed with myeloma, which caused his kidneys to fail. As of February 2009, the cancer is in remission after chemotherapy and stem-cell transplants.