I had a very strange career. I mean I went from playing to 150,000 people in 1983/84. Three or four years later I was playing to four people, you know, in Melbourne. I thought - bit strange, you know bit odd, bit erratic.

I'd play to a hundred people or sometimes less. Hay joined as guest vocalist with The Incredible Penguins in 1985 for a cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" a charity project for research on Little Penguins which peaked at No. It’s been word-of-mouth.

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Hay's music has been frequently used by actor and director Zach Braff in his work subsequently leading to a career rebirth in the mid-2000s. Regarding his solo career Hay stated in 2011: "I feel like it’s been building for the last fifteen or so years that I’ve been touring. People see the show like it and tell their friends.