You’d be hard-pressed to find any Australian who isn’t yet familiar with the practice of doing a shoey, but James Johnston may have just pioneered the ‘leggy’ thanks to one fan in Townsville.
Headlining the Friday night line-up of Townsville’s Country Fest Queensland on Friday, June 12th, Johnston’s set would likely have been a rather standard one had it not been for an inquisitive message from a fan.
Taking to social media yesterday, Johnston revealed that prior to his show on Friday, he had received a message from Jen Williams, who said, “I am an amputee and am wondering if you would do a Leggy (drink from my prosthetic leg) at the end of your show?
“I am a huge fan and this would be so awesome... show ppl how to get Legless the right way,” she added. “Ps it is clean lol.”
Sure enough, come Friday evening’s performance, Johnston put a call-out to see if Williams was in the crowd, and before long, the denim-jacketed fan appeared onstage with her prosthetic leg, which was itself emblazoned with a New Zealand silver fern design.
Pouring his drink into the mobility aid, Johnston polished off his beverage, later summing up his feelings by captioning his socials post: “I can't believe I agreed to this.”
While some of Johnston’s fans have called for it to become an annual tradition at Country Fest, it’s worth noting that the practice – or at least its prominent relative, the shoey – is an immensely divisive one both on local and international stages.
Though it’s a common practice which has seen many an international guest performer get in on the action, many find themselves opposed to it. Famously, Harry Styles kicked off his 2023 Australian tour with one, stating “This is one of the most disgusting traditions I’ve ever heard of,” and adding “I feel ashamed of myself” after the event.
Just last year, Chris Stapleton said he’d turn down the opportunity should it ever come his way.
“I’ve heard about this,” Stapleton said during his last local tour. “I asked somebody before I went on for the first night, ‘Is there anything that I should be prepared for?’ And then they’re like, ‘Yes, a shoey. They’ll want you to drink beer out of a shoe.’
“And I said I will graciously decline to do that.”
“I’m definitely not doing a shoey,” Jon Pardi confirmed just a week earlier. “I think it’s gross. I’ll leave that to someone else on the tour.”
The practice has even spread globally, with Dasha doing a shoey in Canada, while Alli Walker put a different spin on it by drinking out of a dead catfish. (Technically, that would become a ‘catfishy’, but that name might be trademarked by MTV, so it’s easier to categorise as a shoey.)
Whatever your take on it, Johnston’s decision to take part in a ‘leggy’ seems to indicate that there are still plenty of ways to reinvent the divisive practice.
Countrytown brings you Australia’s best country music news, interviews, charts and more every week! This post was authored by Countrytown and originally published on the Countrytown website. It has been re-published with permission.
