Human Nature had kicked off their 2021 Australian concert series and were a handful of shows in when COVID restrictions stopped the tour in its tracks.
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"If COVID has taught us one thing, it's how to be flexible and patient," Phil Burton said.
"But this time we're getting to see places in Australia that we have not seen for so many years and in some cases have never seen before."
New tour People Get Ready, Again - 2022 Reboot will bring together the very best elements of the Good Good Life tour and People Get Ready AAA tour into one new, amalgamated show.
Burton, alongside Toby Allen and brothers Michael and Andrew Tierney, will perform original hit songs like Telling Everybody and Wishes as well as their versions of Motown classics - with a few surprises thrown in, too.
The ARIA Hall of Fame inductees have spent more than a decade on and off in Las Vegas performing various residencies. Burton made the decision in 2021 to move home to Australia with his family, leaving the rest of the group in Las Vegas.
"We had 11 years in Vegas, our family, and it was a great experience but it always felt like we would come home eventually. That was always the plan," he said.
"The kids are settling back into Aussie life. We wanted them to experience what we did growing up - a little bit more of a laidback existence."
The Burtons used to live in Henderson, about 20 minutes from the famous Las Vegas strip.
"There's the big strip in the middle of Vegas and then around that there is this small-town American feel. Quiet and conservative," he explained.
"A lot of people who live there have no idea what the strip is like, they just go about their lives.
"We were on billboards all around the city for 11 years and there are still people you'd meet who'd go 'Oh, Human Nature, never heard of you'."
Like so many others in the entertainment industry, Burton is thrilled to see audiences returning to live music venues.
"The fear has been lifted," he said.
"When it comes down to it, there is nothing more human than shared experiences with other humans. To have that back, it's a great feeling."
He's particularly looking forward to the "storytelling" aspect of the live shows, "the reasons why we did what we did". Does that include an explanation about the '90s goatee he once sported, I ask? Burton laughs.
"You know, Toby still has the eyebrow piercing. I don't know if he is ever going to get rid of it. He's hanging on to the '90s. Maybe I should bring back the goatee, Mike the long curly hair, and Andrew the sideburns from hell?"
Catch Human Nature at the Civic Theatre Newcastle on July 22. Tickets are on sale now.
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