John Laws on The Johnny O'Keefe Show

John Laws (1935–2025) – talkback pioneer, jackaroo, poet – was one of the most dominant voices on Australian airwaves for more than 70 years. But did you know he could sing?

The famous ‘golden tonsils’ were more often heard on Sydney radio stations, where he commanded an audience of millions and interviewed the country’s most prominent politicians, and on TV, where he hosted the shows Beauty and the Beast and In One Lifetime. His deep, dramatic growl featured in classic commercials for Oral B (‘Ok Rob. Show us’) and Valvoline (‘You know what I mean’), as well as in the cinema ad for Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (‘The Girl. The Boy. The School. The Rock!’)

Laws had polio twice – once as a child, and once as an adult. In this 1962 episode of The Johnny O’Keefe Show, he has just recovered from his second bout, but still gives a spirited rendition of ‘Funny Way of Laughing’ – although as he said himself, he was always more comfortable behind a (gold-plated) microphone.

Laws was a polarising figure whose later career was marked by controversy over the ‘cash for comment’ scandal, in which he was accused of taking money for expressing favourable opinions of products on air, without disclosing the commercial arrangement to listeners. But his popularity was enduring, and he continued to broadcast until his retirement in 2024.

His trademark introduction was ‘Hello world: I’m John Laws.’ He died on 9 November 2025, aged 90.