By Ann Marie Angebrandt
RICKY Muscat is living a dream of a lifetime.
Even if he doesn’t go beyond the top 12 of this year’s Australian Idol competition this week, the Werribee factory worker and WRFL football player will be over the moon with his result, said mum Doris McCullen.
“He was born to do this, it’s something he’s been working on since he was little,” she said.
The 22-year-old has been living like a celebrity in Sydney, doing radio interviews and photo shoots and providing autographs to adoring young women.
In the meantime, his family – mum Doris, dad George, stepdad Jason, and siblings Cody, 21, Amy, 15 and Reece, 5 – are sending text votes to keep him in the contest.
The former Galvin Park student quit school in Year 11 to get a job and focus on music.
“He wasn’t what you’d call an academic kid – making a career from music was always in the back of his mind,” Mrs McMullen said.
His father is a drummer who passed on his love of percussion, but Ricky is self-taught in organ and guitar.
The instruments and singing were so disruptive in the early years that Ricky was given a room outside the house where he could “jam and sing and not annoy anyone,” said Mrs McCullen.
“Ever since prep, he’s been joining choirs and bands and singing at family functions,” she said.
Even if her son is voted out this week, landing a spot as a Wildcard finalist in the top 12 will likely help his musical career, she said.
If not, he’s always got his footy.
The young musician plays for the Glenorden Hawks.
