Sometimes greatness comes from strange beginnings.
Martin was born into poverty at the end of The Great Depression on the 5th August 1934. The world was a different place back then and his world was way out of touch with it. Much later he would be recognised as "thinking out of the square"; the truth was "the square" was not a commodity in the desolate outback setting of his childhood.

Martin grew up amongst primitive Aborigines in the northern gold fields of Western Australia. He knew the dreaming time and lay awake to the familiar sounds of ancient ceremony. Synchronicity, coincidence and intuition have been his guides right from the start. They could be relied upon, where others could not.

Throughout his childhood, Martin had suspicions the man who constantly beat and verbally abused him was not his real father. When he ran away from home at the age of fifteen, he met a man who claimed he was his father. But things were not that simple… Martin was not to learn the truth until much later.

On her death bed, Martin's mother confessed to some facts, finally freeing her of the guilt and shame she had been living with for over 50 years. She claimed she was raped and Martin was conceived. His unmarried mother, Jessie Simmonds, had lived a de facto relationship with a man promising legitimate marriage for over a decade. This was an extremely dishonourable thing to do in those days. Her partner was an adventurer, naval officer and early in life, a steeple chase jockey. His name was Joseph Overell. He was the son of one of Australia's leading property owners. Joseph had also run away from home as a young man, and claimed to be the rightful heir to Overells (a huge department store in Market Street, Sydney, now known as David Jones). Most people did not believe him; however, truth is stranger than fiction.

Many years later, investigations found his story to be true. A synchronistic event took place leading Martin to meet Joseph Overell. Joseph, believing he was Martin’s biological father offered to sign papers that would transfer his entitlement to Martin as he expected to pass on very soon. At this point, Martin ran away again.

This was before his mother's bedside confidence claiming that Martin’s true father was Joseph's best friend. Jessie never divulged the incident because she feared a huge scandal at the time. The man who raped her was the son of Jean Beadle, the first lady magistrate in Australia. The story of Jean Beadle, Martin’s biological grandmother, is in Australia’s who’s who of history. From a poor beginning, she grew up in the clothing sweatshops of Melbourne where she organised the hard-working women to fight for justice: more pay, better working conditions, etc. She received fame and notoriety when she urged the married women in Broken Hill to strike at home for their rights by revoking the conjugal rights of their husbands. She convinced the women to refuse sex to their partners until they received better conditions in the workplace: THEY WON! She was voted into parliament and became famous for introducing child endowment, welfare and maternity allowances. Many years after her death, one of Martin’s grand children researched the story of Jean Beadle. Her obituary was written by the war-time Prime Minister, John Curtin, 1942. Martin had tears in his eyes when he read it. Her strong spirit had taken her from the hard life of sweatshops to become the assistant to the Prime Minister of Australia. The highest office any woman had achieved at the time. Martin was not destined to meet her, and in reading her story he could only feel pride and a little awe that he shared her genes.

A Hypnotist, by many other names, could still Rock you to sleep...

Jessie Simmonds gave birth on the kitchen table to a boy. As was often the case, there was no midwife in attendance. Jessie was assisted by "Stanley" her sister in law. Stanley was used for male or a female and so they named the baby after her. Martin often says jokingly that it was lucky that Aunty Bertha or Aunty Rose weren't present. The baby was registered in the name of Joseph Stanley Overell Simmonds. Soon afterwards, Jessie Simmonds went to visit friends in the outback gold fields in the north of Western Australia. She and the baby were never to return to Joseph Overell in Perth. She met and married Caleb James, a hard-working underground gold miner. Joseph was adopted by his stepfather at the age of 5 and became plain Stan James dropping the links to his namesake. His mother wasn’t completely aware of the hate Caleb had for Stan, who had to contend with daily beatings and psychological abuse as four sisters entered the world over the next four years. They shared a house made from potato bags with dirt floors. There were no modern conveniences. No refrigeration, only an old wood stove.

Stan James slept under the stars, with the company of mosquitos, spiders, and countless other crawly things of the night. He lived in fear of the haunting sounds of Aborigines around camp fires, conducting corroborees, and ancient ceremonies, in which they danced and chanted all night. Through the desert scrub he could see them as silhouettes lit up by the camp fires. The images and sounds fed his fertile mind and imagination.

Young Stan was drawn to the world of entertainment – a world of sawdust, circuses and the smell of liniment. Show business re-christened him Rocky Martin, he was a singing cowboy who knew how to hypnotise. In the Rock N Roll era he graduated to Rock Martin. After years of extensive touring throughout Australia, Rock arrived in Hollywood with an act like nothing they had seen before. His talent was quickly spotted and he was invited to appear on the most highly rated prime-time television show in the world: the Steve Allen Tonight Show. Rock Martin did not have the ring the American promoters were after for there star act. Rock? Martin? Stan? James?...

After a little tweaking, Steve Allen and Irwin Zucker (Martin's PR man) introduced him to millions of American viewers who marvelled at his incredible performance as Martin St James.