Crusher’s yarn, finally
BRETT ‘Crusher’ Murray knows not everyone is going to like his memoir – not that he gives a damn.
“Some people will read it and think ‘This bloke’s a w----’ but that’s never worried me before,” the media and motor sport identity laughs of Crusher – You Just Can’t Make That S#^! Up, the rollicking read he’s been promising his mates for years.
“I grew up in a culture where you worked and you drank and that drinking usually led to chapters that have ended up in this book ... if social media was around with some of the s--- we did, we’d probably still be in jail.
“It was definitely a different era but that doesn’t mean it was better … public comment has tidied up things like sexism and racism, which was well overdue especially in this country.
“But at the same time we don’t want to suffocate the characters and that’s something social media is doing.
“Where is the next bunch of characters? You might read my book and think I’m one, but I just don’t care what people think of me.
“I just do what I do.” What Murray’s done since he lobbed on the Gold Coast from country NSW in the late ’80s is create a name for himself across the media, sporting and social worlds.
A former writer for the Bulletin, he has built his Speedcafe.com brand into one of the world’s leading motorsport news sites, runs a TV business out of Melbourne and has a swag of PR clients, including many he discreetly advises on everything from media to politics.
Having self-published his memoir to coincide with turning 50 this week, Murray has penned chapters on worthy subjects such as his years working on the Gold Coast’s motorsport event, how he helped avert the A1GP debacle in 2009 and the realisation of a dream when he entered his own team in the 100th Indy 500 in the US.
“Originally I just thought it was going to be funny s--but I thought maybe there were a few lessons I could pass on.”
That said, he had more fun writing about the likes of the time he got amorous with an older woman in the back of a Datsun 200B in Canberra in the middle of winter.
“I sometimes wonder if I need to get a bit more corporate and then I think, why would I change what’s working,” says Murray, who lives at Paradise Point with wife Trudi and 17-year-old Max.
“I’ve got some really good relationships in the corporate world and they’re all based on me getting the end result and how I deal with them on a personal basis.
“I’m proud of the relationships I’ve built.”
They include a host of motorsport legends, many who have travelled to the city he loves for today’s book launch and weekend birthday bash.
“My intention was to come to the Gold Coast for two years and then travel, but doors kept opening and I kept walking through them,” Murray says. “I’m in the fortunate position that I could live most places in the world and I choose to live here.”
Visit crusherthebook.com
IF SOCIAL MEDIA WAS AROUND WITH SOME OF THE S--- WE DID, WE’D PROBABLY STILL BE IN JAIL BRETT ‘CRUSHER’ MURRAY