When the late entertainment tycoon Robert Stigwood was already a household name, a teenage musician from a small town in Western Australia's Wheatbelt phoned him at his parents' home.
There were only a few Stigwoods in the White Pages and John Read got hold of Stigwood's parents' number through the entrepreneur's chatty aunt.
Mr Read, who is now 70 and retiring as chief executive from his last posting in the outback shire of Yalgoo, laughs as he remembers his youthful confidence approaching the music legend who, among many achievements, helped propel the Bee Gees to stardom.
"We were at a motel in Adelaide when I read the local paper that Robert Stigwood was back in Adelaide, his home town, from London visiting his parents," Mr Read said.
"So, I said to my sister Shirley and the piano player that was with us, 'Why don't we ring him and let him know that we are in town?'"
Stigwood, on the lookout for new talent, invited the siblings over and they performed their original songs in his parents' lounge room.
"Looking back on it now, at that young age, to say, 'Look, I will ring Robert Stigwood and let him know I am in town', that was a bit cheeky," he said.
Entertaining the troops
It led the pair, who performed as the Same Day Twins, signing up with Stigwood and recording a song that came to Mr Read one night in a dream when he was at boarding school.
"I came out of this dream at 3 o'clock in the morning and I had this song complete in my mind with all the words, all the music," he said.
The siblings' whirlwind career included travelling to Vietnam during the war in 1968, at age 18, to entertain Australian troops.
"We nearly got rocketed a few times," he said.
"It was a real eye-opener."
Shirley Read (now Pochee) stayed in the entertainment industry but her older brother retired at the ripe old age of 20 and went into local government.
"I got to a point where I wanted to get married, settle down with down-to-earth people, have children and live a normal life," he said.
Now a grandfather, and still happily married, he has no regrets.
"I probably would have ended up with a drug overdose — it was rife in the industry," he said.
"In many respects I am glad I got out. Life is good."
'Go for it'
Mr Read's second career took him around the state including to East Pilbara; "the largest shire in area in the world".
But the music did not leave him.
He still writes songs, has recorded a track for a West Australian Music (WAM) album and happily pulls out the guitar at shire council Christmas parties.
Mr Read said his experience performing provided lessons for life.
"I think the lesson in all that is to just go for it — if you can see an opportunity, go for it," he said.
