But for the OG Red Wiggle, that rise to fame which has continued on since the mid-1990s, began nearly 60 years ago right here in Orange.

Mr Cook and his family moved to the city from Cowra when he was just eight years old. He would spend time at Orange East Public School, Calare Public and Orange High before moving to Sydney in year 11.

That time in Orange still holds a special place in his heart even to this day.

"Relative to my life it was a fairly short period of time," he said.

"But really, those kind of ages, the sort of early teens into your mid-to-late teens is when we really kind of develop things.

"That's when I started playing music. I learnt guitar while I lived in Orange and I really, really got obsessed with music while I lived there. Orange is such a huge part of my formative years that I've always felt a real affection for it."

Between the time living in the Central West and now, Mr Cook has seen dramatic changes in all facets of life. One of the biggest is the connectivity to places like Sydney.

"When I lived in Orange, it did seem like a long way from the city," he said.

"But it was still really great. There was still lots of musicians, lots of bands playing in those days.

"But you had to move to Sydney to do anything. It just seems like these days you can stay where you are and make your music and get it online or get out there and play live. There's no barriers living in the regional areas now."

As for the Hottest 100 winning song, Mr Cook remembers the moment he knew they'd hit the nail on the head.

"We played it for a while and then Nick Webb, who's from our record company, listened and said 'oh yeah, it's good, but it needs to be Wiggle-afied, it's not Wiggly enough'," Mr Cook added.

"He said it just sounded like we'd done a cover and hadn't really changed anything much and that's where the idea of putting Fruit Salad in the middle of it came from. It was amazing."

Although it had never really occurred to him that they may take out this year's title, Mr Cook was pleased their song was able to resonate with so many.

"(Anthony Field) claimed to not have heard of the Hottest 100 which I'm not sure is actually true," he added.

"Then there were media reports saying we were favourites to win but even leading up to it we were just happy to be under consideration. If we'd have come in at number 100 I would have been pretty happy with that.

"The Wiggles was about spreading joy and what we're hearing from people is that's what this did.

"The last couple of years have been pretty bad for everyone and it's not bad to be able to do something that makes people smile and makes them happy. I think that's what mostly what happened."

Mr Cook will be returning to the Central West very soon, when he and his band the Soul Movers perform at Parkes' Elvis Festival in April.

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