For diesel, the blues are never far away. From his classic hit Come to Me to last year’s Days Like These to his blues-based 1996 collaboration with Chris Wilson, Short Cool Ones, he’s always infused the spirit and the sound of the blues into his music. But they’ve never been as blues-to-the-wall as they are on Project Blues: Saturday Suffering Fools, a loose-limbed, fired-up trawl through the music that inspired one of Australia’s rock legends.

“The album is like an encyclopaedia of what blues is to me,” diesel says. Choosing the songs wasn’t hard – these are tracks Diesel has lived and loved for years, mixed with five off-the cuff originals inspired by the vibe of the covers he was picking. Then it was just a case of throwing the boys in the studio and letting rip.