INTERVIEW: ROSE CARLEO – May 2026

INTERVIEW: ROSE CARLEO – May 2026
By Shane Pinnegar

Rose Carleo’s recognition factor increased substantially after her appearance on TV talent show The Voice, where her powerhouse vocals blew away not only the other performers, but also the judges and viewers around the country.

But Carleo is no newcomer to Australian stages, having released a couple of country-tinged albums and a rock record under her own flag, and more recently a couple of excellent rock n’ roll EPs as The Rose Carleo Band, which she leads alongside life partner Mick Adkins (Rogue Sharks), Mick O’Shea (who has drummed for almost everybody who’s almost anybody) and Bill Kervin (Dragon).

The band released their first full-length collective effort – 42 Days – last week, and it’s a hot slab of quintessential Aussie rock n’ roll – so good that we had to have a chat to find out more.

CLICK HERE to read our ALBUM REVIEW

We’re old mates, so have a little chat before diving into the formal interview questions, but first Rose wants to know what I thought of the album. I oblige by reading a short section of the album review I had written the day before:

“…what we have here is the real deal: sincere rock n’ roll at the highest level. Great songs, thoughtful lyrics, irresistible ear worm melodies, playing that sizzles when there’s room, lashing everything down to the foundations when that’s what is necessary.”

Rose gives us the back story of the title, revealing that it was 42 days after her sister’s passing that she could take pen to paper again.

“My sister passed away two years ago this July, and we had already started writing [the album]. I guess it incapacitated me for months. I just… I couldn’t… I could barely function. And Mick, God love him, was flying the flag, so he just pressed on and pressed on. And then, probably about six weeks later – that’s what 42 days was about – I kind of started to come out of my funk a little bit.

“Not that I’m 100% out of it, but you know what I mean? You sort of start going, okay, well, maybe I can look at this. And 42 Days, it just popped into my head… and I wrote it!”

Grief can be so unpredictable – it can go away for a while and then it just hits you like a tsunami when the littlest things trigger you. But it is a sad silver lining that from grief can come great art.

The album was mostly finished in 2025 but had to be put on the back burner for months for contractual reasons because of Carleo’s appearance on The Voice. I wonder how difficult that must be, knowing something they’d worked so hard on was just sitting there unheard. Turns out it almost stopped her appearing on the show at all.

“It was really difficult. Like really, really difficult – to the point where I was like, do I do it? Do I go on [The Voice] or don’t I go on because of that whole factor? But you know, I kind of figured that it would be worth doing it. I was asked by a few people to go on, and I thought, well, it’s going to be worth it because it’s going to bring rock and roll back on the telly again, to the forefront – Aussie rock! And it would obviously help our cause, but it would help other musicians causes and older musicians as well, because I’m not a, you know, 18-year-old spring chicken anymore.”

With an album in the can for the better part of a year, Rose admits that not only was there temptation to tweak what they had, but the track listing changed during that time.

“It was very tempting, and we did tinker with a few bits and pieces. And a couple of songs were written afterwards as well – we actually had quite a few different songs to choose from. So, in that respect, the ones that we’d done previously, I really tried really hard not to touch them, but other ones that were relatively new compared to like, say, Daisy’s Song or Son of God… Yeah, we did tinker a little bit, but just tried not to do too much. And of course, my focus was on the show as well. So I was a little bit useless in that respect, I could only focus on that.”

With most of the songwriting undertaken by Adkins & Carleo, the singer is adamant that the songs are directly influenced by all four band members.

“Mick – he’s unreal. What a great writer and great guitar player and yes, he’s fantastic. He’s a freak.

“A lot of the songs, Mick had already written some music or a riff or something like that and then brought it to me and said, what do you think of this? And then I’ll… I’m sort of the melody girl, and then we write the lyrics together, or he might have written some of the lyrics already.

“42 Days pretty much all fell out of me when I was sitting at my mother-in-law’s house in Tassie, and then I just put it down on acoustic guitar. And then we sort of wrote the riffs and tweaked this and that. So more often than not with this album he was coming to me with stuff and then I’d go look at a melody and look at lyrics and things like that. But we are starting to write a bit more together now. I guess I’ve got a bit more of a headspace for it as well. And the album’s done, so we’re working on the next lot.

“As far as the guys go, quite often when we’re in rehearsal or even in the studio, one of them, Shady [Mick O’Shea] or Bill, will try something that works, you know, that wasn’t there [originally] or whatever. So in that respect, yeah, it’s quite a collaborative effort.”

Not only does this mean there’s a few tracks in the bank for a follow-up record, but Rose slips that there’s actually a bonus track on the vinyl edition of 42 Days.

“And actually on the vinyl, uh… I’m not sure if I meant to say this [laughs], but on the vinyl there’s a different song than what’s on the CD!”

The album is chock-a-block with great rock songs, so I asked Rose to share some thoughts about a few of my favourites.

Opener You Ain’t Foolin’ Me, feisty and fierce and anti-bullies and bullshitters:

“Yeah, anti-everything that you said, and being factual – like, someone trying to tell us the sky’s green when it’s clearly blue, things like that. It’s like, everyone can have their opinion, but yeah, don’t bullshit me. You know, we’ve got to base things on facts, right? And don’t try and bully me into your way of thinking.”

I think it’s important to call people out on that shit – especially nowadays when there’s so many bloody trolls and keyboard warriors and everyone thinks they can shout their opinion without any kind of blowback. So, yeah. Good on you!

“Even coming back to The Voice, I mean, 99% of the comments and feedback was fantastic, but there was a little bit here and there that were trying to bring me down and be mean and things. But I was just like, whatever, you know, it’s okay to hide behind a keyboard, but let’s see you get up there and try and do something like that. So, yeah, absolutely. It’s quite prevalent, unfortunately.”

Daisy’s Song, obviously about mental health problems as experienced by a friend of the band. It’s a bit of a minefield topic. Was it difficult to get the right balance so that you’re supportive and de-stigmatising the mental health side of things without in any way talking down about it?

“I don’t feel it was hard because I’ve been through it myself and feel like I’m kind of navigating it all the time. If I’m a hundred percent honest, I think a lot of us are. So I think we just tried to write it from the heart and sing it from the heart and perform it from the heart. And I feel that came through and we nailed it, because you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s life, in someone’s head, in someone’s backyard. You just don’t know. Just try to be kind and if you can, if you have capacity, be there for them.”

The Malcolm Young referencing, Son of God: amazing song. That was a single a little while ago. Really, I think it really showcases how this band just lock in that groove, lock on target and don’t let go to the end. It’s in a sort of a time honoured Accadacca sort of tradition. Now, was AC/DC the band where the four of you have the most common ground?

“I’d say so, the biggest influence for sure, especially Mick and I, as you would know. So he had that riff. He wrote that song a couple of years ago. And that riff, you know, like I used to dream about that riff. He played it so much around the house. But yeah, just that locked in groove, that, I guess, growing up listening to Powerage and High Voltage and Highway To Hell and all that kind of stuff, it really, almost becomes part of your DNA, as corny as that sounds, but, you know, just becomes part of what you do. And the influence is huge. But AC/DC is definitely, I think, the common denominator of influence for a lot of us.”

Where She Sleeps is a beautiful ballad, but not about Carleo’s much-missed Mum or sister as we initially surmised.

“Actually, no, it was about a friend of ours, their 17-year-old daughter who passed away from a heart condition that she was born with. They’re very close friends of ours in Tassie, and initially the song was written just for them as a gift. And they said, you should release it. And we said, oh, it was just for you guys, you know, as a gift – like, what can we do [to help with their grief]? Okay, we can write a song.

“So, they said you should release it. So, we’ve released it. Yeah, Millie, her name is, and she was just an incredible young lady: kind, beautiful, gentle, talented, and unfortunately she passed away. So we felt that pretty deeply, her parents being close friends of ours.”

For the track Dirt Bound, they enlisted Swedish rocker Pontus Snibb – who write the song for his band Bonafide’s 2009 album Something’s Dripping – to contribute backing vocals.

“Pontus Snibb. Oh my God. I love Bonafide. We are such big Bonafide fans. So what happened was, Mick, a couple of years ago, you know when you play either Apple Music or Spotify or whatever, and it plays another song afterwards – the algorithm, right? So after one of our songs, a Bonafide song came on, and it was Dirt Bound, and Mick comes racing in saying, ‘oh my God, listen to this song, I can’t believe it, listen to it, listen to it.’

“I listened to it and I was like, ‘man, what a song.’ I almost, if I can be as bold to say, we almost felt like we could have written it. That was our kind of style, if that makes sense. And I said to Mick, ‘we gotta write a song like this! You know what? Fuck it. Let’s just record it.’ And he’s like, ‘are you sure?’ ‘Yeah, I want to record it.’

“It’s such a great song, just a thumping song. And I think, you know, it’s good to write all the songs if you can. But I also feel that the right song will take you where you’re meant to go. The song kind of decides, right, when you’re putting together a body of work. So anyway, we’re big Bonafide fans and Facebook friends with Pontus, and I’m a bit of a fangirl… Anyway, Mick said, ‘I know what we’ll do. Why don’t we email him and see if he wants to do some backing vocals?’ And I was like, ‘oh my God, okay, I’m too nervous. You can do it.’ So Mick emailed him and Pontus said, ‘yeah, sure, when it’s mixed, let’s have a look and see what you’ve got.’

“And he loved it and was obviously, as you can hear, so stoked to do the backing vocals, and we’re looking at maybe doing a clip down the track. We’ve got a bit of footage of him. And long story short, I think he’s turned into one of our fans as well. We’re looking at maybe doing something with them in the next year or two in Europe, possibly – and maybe another song as well!”

The album closes with the classic-in-waiting post-gig drinking song, Line ‘Em Up.

“Lived experience? Yeah, maybe. [laughs] That song was released as a single a little while ago. That’s when Kingy [Steve King, now reunited and touring with Rose Tattoo] was in the band. It was always meant to be the last song of the album. We just took a little bit of time getting the album together. So, great ending for an album, I believe. And having a drink, relaxing when it’s all over and where’s the party?!”

When pinned to do the impossible and declare a personal favourite from the album – or to be a little fairer, choose which track they’d play to someone who hadn’t heard them before – Rose doesn’t hesitate long at all.

“Oh dear. I would probably play 42 Days ‘cos I wrote it for my sister 42 days after her passing, you know. But I think it’s emotive but it’s not like a full on ballad tear jerker, it’s still a rock song. But in saying that, Son of God, Daisy’s Song, Eulogy For The Devil, that’s another cracker. That one’s dedicated to Elvis Presley, it’s a song about Elvis – they called him the devil, right? But yeah, I think I’d first go with 42 Days, me personally.”

Returning to Rose’s appearance on The Voice, I ask her if it has increased the band’s profile and touring offers.

“Well, as far as the Japan tour [which took place in mid-April] goes, that was already in the can before The Voice. The only thing I had to do was put it off six months. We were meant to go in October, but we ended up going in April.

“As far as reach, to Australian households. [the show broadcast to] 900,000 viewers per episode or whatever it was – it’s definitely helped us. And when they said the boys could wear their band t-shirts, that kind of sealed the deal for me. I said, okay, because you can’t pay for that kind of advertising, right, on a musician’s wage! It’s definitely helped. Definitely sort of brought us up another rung, I guess, as far as people being aware, and awareness of Aussie rock and roll.”

Rose reveals that the band had a fanbase in Japan before their visit.

“We had a small fan base. I just said to the boys, ‘let’s go to Japan.’ And they’re like, ‘What?’ Why not, right? Get out of Australia to start on the international side of things. We did have some interest on our socials and things. The Japanese love live music and they love rock music, so what better way than to go to Japan, dip our toe in the water.

“It was incredible. They’re like, ‘when are you coming back?’ already! I get messages, you know, almost weekly, ‘when are you coming back?’ So that went really, really well. And a lot of the bands that came and supported us, they were a lot younger than us, you know, so it was kind of cool. I mean, I’m the youngest in the band, but it was kind of cool having the old rockers out there headlining and we’ve still got it. So it was really good.

“I even got a tattoo there for my sister. It’s funny, I booked into a tattoo shop in Osaka before I left Australia, and I got there and there was a guy from Sydney, an Australian guy from Sydney that did it. Yeah, he was fantastic, but I was just, who would have thought?”

Without wanting to be contentious, it’s a fact that a lot of rockers dismiss shows like The Voice as being a bit contrived or sanitised. I wonder if there was any attempt to manipulate Rose into singing something she didn’t want to or alter her sound.

“I was approached to go on and I’d said no. And then Mick said to see what they’ve got to say. You never know, right? And then I sort of weighed it all up and I thought, ‘well, it’ll be good for the band, good for profile, all that kind of stuff.’ They wanted a rock chick, and I thought, ‘well, that’s me!’

“Yeah, so, you give them a list of songs, but it’s not your final choice. It’s the coach’s choice. A couple of songs I did on there, I’d never sung before. So that was very interesting, but really good – it kept me on the edge. So yeah, you don’t get a lot of say in the songs or anything at all. You can tell them how you feel, of course, but the final decision is with the coach or with the music team.

“I felt like I was respected. It was very tiring – you’re doing 12 and 13 hour days and singing for maybe half an hour or an hour, you know, and then you’re doing press, you’re doing photos, you’re doing hair, makeup, wardrobe fittings, all that kind of stuff. There’s a lot of sitting around as well. So, it was mentally really, really tiring. But yeah, I did feel respected for sure. Absolutely I did. It was a really interesting process and really interesting seeing how television works. At the end of the day, it’s a reality show. It’s a television show. So that was really, really interesting.”

It sounds like a lot of long days for a very short time on screen.

“Oh for sure. Like even with the interviews, each interview was probably almost an hour, asking me all these different questions, but I think you might’ve seen 90 seconds of it on the telly, So I guess they decide what they’re gonna use and what ends up on the cutting room floor, depending on how the show’s going.”

Carleo attests that radio play for the band has picked up since she was on The Voice.

“The airplay is definitely getting a lot better with Daisy’s Song and then with Son of God. It’s definitely raising and getting up there. That’s also a combination of having the right team as well, not just being on The Voice, but definitely from having the right team behind me has really, really helped. Yeah, it’s all in the pot. All the right ingredients are there, I reckon.”

From the Press Release for 42 Days:

Fronted by acclaimed vocalist, songwriter, and next Queen of Rock Rose Carleo, the band has carved out a reputation for blending blues, rock, and roots with heartfelt storytelling. Joining Rose is a powerhouse line-up featuring Guitarist and Co-writer Mick Adkins, Bassist Bill Kervin, and Drummer Mick O’Shea.

42 Days marks a defining chapter, an album born from a period of intense reflection and creative rebirth.

Leading the release is the focus track, “42 Days,” a powerful centrepiece that encapsulates the spirit of the record. Driven by Carleo’s commanding vocal performance and anchored by gritty instrumentation, the track explores endurance, healing, and the emotional weight of time. It’s both deeply personal and universally relatable – a song that lingers long after the final note.

“This record comes from a deeply personal place,” says Carleo. “It’s about navigating life’s challenges, finding strength in the struggle, and coming out the other side with clarity and purpose.”

TOUR DATES
MAY
22 – Three Brothers Arms, Macclesfield SA
23 – Renmark Club, Renmark SA
24 – Beach House Café, Victor Harbor SA
30 – The Duke, Newtown NSW
JUNE
27 – Chasing Winter Sun Festival, Sawtell NSW
JULY
9 – Duke Of George, East Fremantle WA (Solo)
AUGUST
21 – Flamingos Live New Lambton NSW
22 – Dead Set Darlinghurst NSW

More shows to be announced

 

Category: Interviews