"Gladiator" Oscar winner Russell Crowe will return to his Australian roots this Sunday, before he embarks next week on a sold-out North American tour with his rock 'n' roll band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts. The former beau of Meg Ryan, 37, reportedly decided to unofficially launch the tour with a weekend performance at his local bar in Coffs Harbour, 360 miles north of Sydney. (The coastal resort town is best known for growing bananas.) Crowe apparently called the owners of the Coffs Harbour Hotel last weekend with an offer they couldn't refuse. "He said, 'I want to do you a favor,' " Ray Alaban, who owns a stake in the hotel, was quoted as saying. " 'I want to play the band there instead of in Sydney.' " Within hours, all 1,000 tickets -- priced at $5 each -- were sold out. Alaban called Crowe's gesture "a favor to the whole town. He's trying to put money back into (Coffs Harbor), which is great. You can't knock that can you?" One source of Crowe's civic pride: he happens to own a ranch in the hills outside Coffs Harbour. Following Sunday's performance, the Grunts will wing it to Austin, Texas, where they will kick off a 14-stop North American tour.