It’s taken 40 years, but iconic Aussie heavy metal rocker David Tice has finally got back to his roots.

Tice founded the legendary outfit Buffalo, and is now bringing the unique sound that launched a thousand pub bands to Dubbo with his show 'Buffalo Revisited' to the Crossroads on Friday night.

Buffalo was a Sydney-based outfit formed in August 1971 with Tice on lead vocals, pioneering a distinctly-Australian hard-edged style — along with groups like Blackfeather and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs — that later went round the world with the stratospheric success of AC/DC.

“I remember one of our first gigs in Sydney was supporting Blackfeather, we also did one opening gig with Billy Thorpe, so yeah, we knew them well,” Dave recalls.

“We did a couple of gigs at the Hordern Pavilion, we came to be known as ‘heavy rock’ but we weren’t really, we were originally a blues band, and that was our roots,” he added.

The change, he revealed, was more organic than strategic, as the group welcomed new members as their distinct sound developed.

“We were originally from Brisbane but, when we came to Sydney, we got a new bass guitarist in Peter Wells and, with his hard-edged style, we became a heavy band; we were just doing what we wanted to do,” Dave explained.

 “We were always the outliers with the more pop sound of a lot of Australian acts at the time, and we came to be known as the ‘Godfathers of Australian Rock’, but in truth, we were all standing on the shoulders of giants,” he said.

Like many a rock pioneer, he can’t but help point to the genre’s debt to an earlier folk form popularised by a number of Black American music performers of the 20th century.

“Blues is the orphan father of rock ’n’ roll, blues permeates all guitar music since the 1940s,” Dave believes.

I’m talking about legends such as Bo Didley, Muddy Waters, and Robert Johnson.”

Like so many of the early Australian stars, Dave’s family came from England as 'Ten Pound Poms' and was introduced to popular music in the group accommodation of these new migrants.

“I came to Australia in 1964, and we were at a migrant hostel in Wacol, Queensland, living in Nissen huts. Alot of the kids were already into rhythm and blues, and it really connected to me. I then saw the Rolling Stones at Festival Hall in 1965, and that was it.

“We were basically friends who wanted to make the same kind of music together, it was more organic just trying to be ourselves.”

He is now reprising that seminal sound for fans who remember the band’s hey-day in the early 1970s and for a new cohort of listeners with his four-piece ensemble.

“I tried to avoid doing this for about 40 years, but here I am, we’re sampling a lot of our stuff from our five albums from Dead Forever… and Volcanic Rock onwards,” Dave revealed.

“Usually, we get an audience of people who want good powerful, music, good hard rock ’n’ roll… usually the bands I like the best, are the ones I’m in.”

Buffalo Revisited are at the Crossroads on Friday, September 27, and are being supported by Paul 'Irish' McMillan.