As an ambassador for Toyota Australia the ARIA award-winning singer’s road trip vehicle of choice is a Toyota LandCruiser Sahara.

The big hauler comes in handy for Sebastian’s other passion — fishing — with the singer requiring a big rig to haul his boat.

“My family and I spend a lot of time down the South Coast and that is probably where I do most of my fishing around Gerroa and Seven Mile Beach,” he says.

Sebastian and his family spend their down time catching squid and Kingfish but his first love is hitting the open road and touring. And this is where he clocks up some serious kays.

“I really drive a lot when I’m on tour, “ he says.

“I tour regionally once or twice every year. One was 53 dates and we went everywhere.”

Sebastian gets to see huge parts of the countryside travelling from regional centres like Bathurst and Taree up to Townsville and everywhere in between.

But this time on the open road is one of Sebastian’s favourite experiences.

“Honesty, to me, touring regional Australia is like a holiday. I absolutely love it. I get to drive and listening to podcasts and I have a hit of golf at the local club. Plus I get to do what I love and perform and be on stage.”

But even before hitting the big time Sebastian, who grew up in Adelaide, loved to drive getting his learners as soon as he could and having his P-plates by 16 and a half.

It was then he bought his first car, a Datsun 120Y, which he kept for about two years.

Next up was his old Ford Telstar that had a dodgy ignition. “The key wouldn’t work in the ignition,” he says. “I had to put the solenoid wire on the battery just to start it.”

Sebastians admits that he has had “a lot of crappy cars” but he loved his old Honda Integra.

“I thought it was so fancy with electric windows,” he says. But as with a lot of older cars the electricials didn’t always work, with Sebastian admitting the windows often broke.

“After Idol I had a Mazda RX-8. I had always wanted a little RX-3 and RX-4 and it was bad for me. They are so quick and it was such a loud car.”

Sebastian remembers driving back to Sydney from Adelaide with his mum and little brothers in the RX-8 when disaster struck on the sparsely populated Hay Plains.

“I thought it was in sixth gear but it was in the fourth and revving about 5000 for hours. Then the fuel warning light came on. I had just filled up!”

“It was at night and I actually had to flag someone down. The guy pulled over and was like ‘what are you doing here?!’.”

The good Samaritan drove more than forty minutes so Sebastian could fill up a few jerry cans. But another starstruck traveller gave him a lift back and the lucky motorists couldn’t believe it was him, she had just been listening to his album when she pulled into the petrol station.

First car: Datsun 120Y

Car trouble: Mazda RX-8

Dream car: 1968 Ford Mustang