David Gordon "Slim Dusty" Kirkpatrick AO, MBE (13 June 1927—19 September 2003) was an iconic Australian country music singer-songwriter. He sold more than five million albums and singles in Australia. Slim released his first record in 1945 at the age of eighteen. In 1946 he signed his first recording contract with Columbia Graphophone for the Regal Zonophone label. Over the course of his career, he collected more gold and platinum albums than any other Australian artist. Dusty not only recorded songs written by himself and other fellow Australian performers, but also recorded classic Australian poems by Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson with new tunes, to call attention to the old 'Bush Ballads.' An example is The Man from Snowy River by Paterson. In 1970, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to music. In 1971 he won Best Single at the Australian Country Music Awards at the Tamworth Country Music Festival (Slim's wife Joy McKean won Song of the Year as writer of the song for which he won best single). In all, he won a record 35 "Golden Guitars" over the years. He died at home in St Ives, New South Wales on 19 September 2003 after a protracted battle with cancer, at age 76.