He spent the latter part of his first decade on Earth in talent shows, the experience of which would lead to later success on the television program Junior Showtime, in 1970-71. In 1981, Joe was a finalist on Search For A Star, and within a few years, was making a number of appearances on television, including his own specials and his own series. In 1989, Longthorne released the album Songbook, which was followed with two albums the following year, Especially For You and a holiday record, entitled Christmas Album. Three Australian tours and more successful live appearances were followed in 1994 by the number one album, Live In Concert, which was then followed by a series of video releases over the next three years. The album Reflections was released in 1999, but the momentum that Longthorne had built up over the last few years was broken in 2005, when he needed a bone marrow transplant to deal with an ongoing battle against Leukemia. In 2007, Longthorne was working on a third collaboration with Tim Duncan, and was touring regularly. ~ Chris True