AL GREEN’S patient Australian fans owe his neighbour a debt of gratitude. See y’all, it was the neighbourly Justin Timberlake who managed to convince one of soul’s greatest to finally agree to tour here.

The Reverend Al Green – he is the pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis, Tennessee – agreed to be the headliner of Sydney Festival First Night after eschewing the many offers to bring him to Australia for three decades because of the prospect of that long-haul flight from home.

“Justin my neighbour told me that ‘once you get down there, you will love it’. So I took him at his word and I know it’s going to be fantastic,” Green says.

source: dailytelegraph au