1. Murray Cook provided guitar, vocals, and songwriting in the group, and remained involved with its creative and production aspects after his retirement.
16 Facts About Murray Cook
1. 2.
Murray Cook remains active in many music projects, including, writing and performing with the Sydney soul-rock band The Soul Movers.
3.
Murray Cook is the father of wheelchair basketball player Georgia Munro-Cook.
4.
Murray Cook returned to university and studied early childhood education at Macquarie University, where he met Anthony Field and Greg Page and formed the Wiggles in 1991.
5.
Murray Cook worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles forced him to quit.
6.
Murray Cook came up with the Wiggles' signature index finger-wagging move after watching professional ten pin bowlers do the move on television.
7.
Murray Cook was considered the intellectual and analytical member of the group, so he acted as mediator for their group decisions.
8.
Murray Cook was replaced by Wiggles cast member Simon Pryce.
9.
Murray Cook told the Newcastle Herald, about his music career after his retirement from the Wiggles, "I was kind of feeling my way for a few years, I guess".
10.
Also in 2015, Murray Cook was involved in the production of the play Sons of Sun, which was about American music producer Sam Phillips.
11.
In 2015, Murray Cook began writing songs with Mack and decided to focus on the band and use it as his "main creative outlet" In 2017, the group recorded Testify, "an album of energetic blues, soul and rock".
12.
The album, which as Murray Cook stated, included "more roots-oriented songs to try to reflect a wide range of American music styles", and was recorded in the US' "premier soul studios" such as Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, and FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
13.
Murray Cook appeared with the group at the rock festival Splendour in the Grass in July 2018.
14.
In 1986, Murray Cook joined the Sydney-based band Bang Shang a Lang.
15.
Murray Cook is married to Meg Munro and has two children, a son and a daughter, wheelchair basketball player Georgia Munro-Cook.
16.
On 30 November 2020,11 months after fellow former bandmate Greg Page collapsed on stage and went into cardiac arrest, Murray Cook opened up about a major health scare which forced him to undergo open heart surgery.