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00:06Jimmy hi nice to talk to you I'm really well well it's going to be a really great chat because
00:16it's
00:16going to be all about your really rich and varied creative life because you're relentless you don't
00:22like to stop do you I find that if I'm not keeping my mind busy a second board and running
00:28off a
00:28tangent and thinking about the wrong things so it's just good for me to stay focused and stay
00:32working that restlessness that relentlessness of yours that actually is creativity for you
00:38yeah I'm constantly trying to find stimulation and when I've got something that appeals to me
00:43I'm like a rabid dog well I'm coming to see you in a place that you can still fill every
00:48single
00:49seat and fill it with that enormous voice of yours too I can feel anywhere I'm a loud person I'll
00:56see
00:56you soon I'm Virginia Trioli and I've spent my life paying attention to creative Australians
01:05and wondering what is going on in that wild mind of theirs
01:11in this series I'll showcase artists and performers at the peak of their powers and tell
01:17the story of their triumphs their stumbles and why they make the glorious work we love so much
01:25Jimmy Barnes is one of the most beloved figures in Australian cultural life both as a singer and a
01:32writer his music has become our national soundtrack and he's forged an unbreakable bond with generations of
01:51fans I'm thrilled to be unashamedly celebrating the art of making because we are a country of so many
01:57brilliant creative types
02:09ah Jimmy how are you we found a stadium big enough for your voice
02:16and I know that this this place kind of feels like a bit of a home ground huh
02:20yeah it's a bit of a home ground I played here quite a lot it's normally a bit fuller when
02:24I'm
02:24but I've been here in the past but
02:36Jimmy what's your connection to this stadium or how many connections do you have I've got a lot
02:40as a fan as a as a football fan you know I've been here to see the Matildas you know
02:45watch the grand
02:46finals I've sang at many grand finals state of origins I've sang at the Olympics here I love
02:52doing it because it's a great discipline but I love playing in clubs where there's walls because
02:56you can really just crank it up and go for it strip the paint off the walls strip the paint
03:00off the walls
03:00but I do but in saying that it is there is something really great when you do get that that
03:05balance of
03:05that tempo and that power and and have that connection then it just becomes a really special
03:10thing playing live is everything for you isn't it absolutely I mean I'm I literally make records
03:15as a as a reason to go out live you know so it can certainly put new songs in the
03:19set my connection
03:20to an audience has always been live
03:29but there's something about when I stand in front of an audience and sing that I feel that it makes
03:33me a better singer and makes me a better performer and I feel more connected I literally feel like my
03:38feet you've always spoken and written about how you want music to be powerful to be heavy to smash
03:54you in the face and to move you and to move you yeah I want people to not be able
03:58to ignore and to
03:59physically experience the music I like bands that you know that you can actually feel the tenacity of
04:05yeah you know it's about it's about an attitude that good bands play with that make the thing powerful
04:21I think one of the things about Jim's work is that he's always been absolutely in the moment which
04:27you need to be to perform at that level from you know the time the first chord rings out till
04:33the time
04:34the last symbol smashes and everyone departs the stage you know covered in sweat with people screaming for
04:40more but it was also very earthy and very upfront and very honest if you like and I think a
04:45really
04:46powerful powerful combination of talents my band you know before we go on I make jokes about it go
04:54out there you know don't take any prisoners you know hit them hard if they get up hit them again
04:59and and so my band like they're so used to walking on stage and going one two three four and
05:04we're in
05:04the deep end and so that's what I expect my man to do every night well talking of hit them
05:08hard I've
05:09been watching some footage of the last stand yeah which we did yes you did you stood up there in
05:151984 and said bye-bye although it wasn't really the final goodbye yeah you sang your vocal chords
05:20to shreds during that show didn't you
05:26by the time we get Adelaide which was our hometown I remember you know done a bunch of shows there
05:30and
05:31the last show I was literally singing and spreading blood out from my throat as I was singing and at
05:35the
05:36end of the show I couldn't speak and took weeks and weeks for it to come back and I for
05:40a while I
05:40thought you've done it this time you've gone too far yeah so it was really it was a frightening time
05:46but when I came back for the last shows in Sydney I just felt I'll be good I promise I
05:52lied
06:05the origins of cold chisel and Jimmy's own musical education both took place on the road the hundreds
06:13of hours spent going from town to town
06:26on the road for oh my god years and years and thousands of gigs that's where you learnt to be
06:33a
06:34musician yeah basically you get out there and you you try your things out and every time you know
06:39sometimes you get run out of town because you didn't quite get it right and then you learn and
06:43you do the next show and you get better as you go and this environment here is where you spent
06:47a lot
06:48of time you know honing what your musical tastes were and yeah where you wanted to take it as an
06:53artist you know the car could get very volatile at times it could get you know there was there's a
06:58place where we sort of not only worked out musically what we're doing but emotionally how we were going
07:03to stay together and you know as the road went on forever it got harder and harder because you know
07:09you don't want to be too close to especially a drunken Scotsman you know with a bad temper
07:17whoever was the best prepared had the best mixtapes would be slamming it in the car deck
07:21and you'd be driving and going oh I'm not jazz again mossy you know please no more jazz not grab
07:26it
07:26throw it out the window god he must have hated you doing that you know they were busy driving so
07:30I had
07:31for two free hands and absolutely no self-control that should be the title of the next one two free
07:39hands control well Jimmy I made you a mixtape so see what you think of these you know this could
07:48cause many a fight in the band if you don't like the music here we go really cool isn't it
07:59very cool
08:00dude I love Thorpey I miss him miss him dearly well he was really important for you wasn't he Billy
08:06Thorpe because well yeah he was my hero you know yeah for a long time just because he liked he
08:10did
08:11things his own way I used to go see him and he played louder than anybody else you know he
08:15loved it pushed
08:16he pushed his band to the limit he pushed himself to the limit yeah pushed his guitar amps to the
08:20limit
08:34all right so here's a musician who everyone reviews and I think it's got an importance to your history have
08:40a
08:42listen muddy waters oh yeah how fast is this though I mean it's a really fast rhythm it's like the
08:50church
08:51yeah yeah
09:00so I used to listen to muddy waters when I was really young because my brother John Swanee was my
09:06big influence when I was a young singer because one he had great records it was in blues bands and
09:11when he was you know 12 and 13. he had great musical taste he had great musical taste so I
09:15used to hear
09:15this coming out of his bedroom and then and you know I'd try to sneak in when he's playing it
09:19and he'd
09:19throw me out but uh and when he'd leave I would I'd be in there playing these records to my
09:23friends you
09:24know and turning them all on the blues muddy waters was one of his favorites so that was my early
09:28sort of
09:28because I listened to little richard muddy waters you know Otis Redding all mainly black singers yeah and then and
09:35when I turned about 13 I started you know like most young boys are starting full of testosterone I
09:39like you know hard work yes
09:47well if we're talking about driving and life on the road there's really one very important
09:53song I think we need to play here have a listen to this
10:00it's a good driving song yeah it's a good driving song is it still nice to hear it you know
10:04what it's
10:05one of my of all the chisel so I love chisel but it's one of my favorite songs to sing
10:09in the world
10:15people stop me in the street and say you know um you know I played this song I'm at I've
10:20danced with my
10:21dad at my wedding to this song yeah you know I you know buried my son to this song yeah
10:26this
10:26first a song to have touched so many people it's an extraordinary way it's just yeah yeah
10:31I really makes you realize that you know you're not on this it's not a journey just about yourself
10:35it's something you're sharing with people and being around for 50 years yeah you should get to share
10:41a lot with people but it's it's modern australian poetry this yeah don's a great poet yeah
10:50i i feel like i wouldn't be the singer i am if i hadn't have lucked out and joined that
10:55band in 1973
10:57just to you know be the guy who gets to sing god walker songs okay that that's that was my
11:02job and it
11:03was so special the way jim sings really was was a foundational influence on the way i write songs
11:18i really like his voice i've tried to tell him over the years because occasionally he gets drawn into
11:25the acrobatics of what he can do and i try to tell him mate the magic in your voice is
11:32just the sound of
11:33it when you're seeing one note nobody can match that
11:42when i sing this light all these people always say to me oh do you have to always sing so
11:46my life you scream so much yes i do i like it that's why i was put here yeah it's
11:52just my job
11:53there's no change there's no place everything
12:00it's hard to believe that she won't be around
12:21jimmy you and i were talking in the car about the nature of your
12:25writing and creative relationship with don walker tell me about that what what is the nature of that
12:30relationship why does it work so well as a boy you know obviously my dad was not in the picture
12:35a lot
12:35he spent a lot of time in the pub when when he was there and when he left when you
12:40know when i was
12:40about 10 you know he disappeared for many many years so i didn't have a lot of good male role
12:46models
12:46in my life i've done felt like my like since the day i joined the band he felt like my
12:50big brother
12:50and he was always caring for me you know there's times literally where i thought he must have been
12:54reading my mail because i'd be going through something in my head you know and it's been
12:58driving me crazy and bubbling up and and suddenly there'd be something in a song would just point to
13:03it you know just the melodies alone i mean i think i made i'm a better singer because i'm
13:07singing don's melodies and and this is about his incredible range and what he asked of you as a
13:12singer and the rest of the band in this song i mean this is a really beautiful bit of cinema
13:17verite by richard lowenstein oh saturday night and of course it's you and ian wending your way
13:22through the crowds and you chance upon the mardi gras parade and i know it's got great meaning for you
13:27but that becomes this wonderful moment of discovery and welcoming and acceptance in a really unusual place
13:41you know don was writing to to suit ian and myself who are total different singers so it's a great
13:49juxtaposition all the time between when ian sings these nice soft swoops and sweeping melodies and
13:54sort of come in and tear the paint off the walls yes and it was uh it's incredible many years
14:07later
14:07when i did the mardi gras you're in but you were invited to see as i was invited to sing
14:10in the
14:10mardi gras which i thought was a huge honor and i and i took it very seriously i went there
14:14and there
14:15was all these men that i met who said like some of the drag queens are on the stands as
14:19they go past
14:20are no longer with us because they lost a lot of friends you know from suicide and aids and all
14:24sorts of things through there and the only film of them in full bloom so to speak is in our
14:30film
14:30clip and they said that makes them cry when they see the song that's amazing
14:37after the breakup of cold chisel in 1983 jimmy embarked on a hugely successful solo career
14:48embracing rock soul and r&b digging deep into the musical influences of his childhood
14:56i want to go back to a key influence for you though and i know this was a real awakening
15:01moment for you
15:02musically when you watched the douglas sirk movie imitation of life yes yeah with your father which
15:08featured an incendiary performance by mahalia jackson unbelievable unbelievable who was singing
15:14in the funeral scene yeah and that song was so affecting for you as i understand it just because
15:19of what it could indicate that a powerful voice can do shall we have a look
15:32she's so beautiful yeah
15:42at this point you know i was sort of snuggling next to my dad because it was an excuse to
15:46sit with him
15:47and and do something with him and so i'm sitting with him and i'm sort of just snuggling into him
15:51and
15:51suddenly this woman started singing and i was like you know i was eight or something i sat up
15:56what did it do to you i was so moved and it was so powerful i was sitting there going
16:00man this is
16:01something special and i remember you know i literally waited for the credits and at the
16:05as the credits rolled it said mahalia jackson and and i thought to myself i want to call my my
16:10first
16:10daughter mahalia how would you describe jimmy barnes as a musician what impresses you well he loves his
16:16music and he knows it very well he's got a very deep knowledge of like the musical canon he's somebody
16:22who attacks the song literally but technically as well and then you've just got something which you
16:27can listen to time and time again you know and get more and more out of when you do listen
16:32to it
16:34despite enjoying immense success professionally jimmy's ghosts were catching up with him and he was
16:41spiraling what was happening to you in your life when you got to that point by the time i was
16:48falling
16:48apart you know uh i mean i was absolutely out of control the amount of drugs i was taking you
16:54know
16:55i don't want to document it because it glorifies it but but it was just stupid events and you know
17:01and
17:01i look at you know michael and you know i've lost friends you know along the way and i just
17:05thought
17:06i you know i don't want to be like that so then when you sat down to to pour this
17:14pain out in these
17:15celebrated books that we've got here yeah it seems like it poured out of you and it almost came out
17:21word perfect it was it was a difficult time so i started seeing a therapist you know and
17:27i don't do anything in half measures when i started going i ended up going you know five days a
17:32week you
17:32know for an hour a day and he was going we got a lot to do here yeah we got
17:35a lot to work on
17:36and then as the book progressed i started having to ring my therapist like at the end of each day
17:41because it would stir up so much pain and stuff in me and i talked to him and i remember
17:46once i was
17:46talking about my mum throwing pots across the bloody the the kitchen that my father and all this sort of
17:52stuff and and and it was a particularly traumatic day and i rang him i said it just seems like
17:57there's
17:57something more and i just i don't know what it is and and you know the violence in that we've
18:01seen in the
18:01house and all he said was what did the kitchen smell like and so suddenly that sense just brought
18:09back all these other memories of that of the home and the power of sense memory the smell yeah oh
18:14shit i hadn't even thought of that and so i rewrote that whole thing you know and when i released
18:20it
18:20i realized that there's so many particularly men who had gone through so much of the same stuff and
18:25didn't want to talk about it and i know that and it was killing them just like it was killing
18:27me
18:29he's a very good writer i think when he put out working class boy someone in my family who
18:35had a literary background said so who's writing this and she had known jim for many decades at
18:45that stage and i said well it's jim and she said are you sure um because it's very very good
18:51i said no
18:52he's not this isn't ghost written this is him when you talk to him you very quickly realize yeah that
18:58the guy i've seen on the page i'm talking to them now were there any similarities any parallels with
19:06songwriting with it with the deep digging you had to do with these books to the kind of creative work
19:11you do with songs the main thing i noticed particularly after writing that first book um my songs they
19:17weren't as shallow yeah it's because i'd want to unlock something i'd write rock songs and it'd be
19:22about being aggressive and i did a lot of press talking about this book where i think i went from
19:28being brave you know like bravado beating my chest and you know i'm not afraid of you when i was
19:32afraid
19:32of everton to being courageous and you know the courage courage to ask for help you know yeah and
19:37the first time i let my guard down and and that applied to songs i went from writing songs about
19:42you
19:42know you got nothing i want angry or you know yeah i love you so much you know without ever
19:47thinking about
19:47what love is you know to writing songs about feelings about things things with substance and
19:53more depth so this is our home studio ah you've got your own studio here and it sort of it
20:08started
20:08out because it was a photo studio when i bought the place and yep so we decided you know we
20:12want to take
20:13more photos we make music so we soundproof the place and that way we can you know it's got
20:17floating floating floors and walls it's a beautifully dead room isn't it yeah and so we can make noise
20:22all night without the neighbors crazy most young kids know you can make a record in your garage with
20:28a laptop yeah so somewhere between that and one of the big super studios and you can do anything you
20:33want in here i've made but must have made about 10 albums in here look it's an interesting contrast
20:38isn't it because you know you love live live is your thing but you've ended up actually being
20:42quite at home and very successful in a studio yeah but i don't spend a lot of time mucking about
20:48in the studio i like to do preparation get in the studio and play live what's that there come and
20:55i
20:55will show you walk this way i can see something through there this is very special really intriguing
21:00so this this it looks absolutely fabulous i must say when cultures i think we're doing the perfect
21:09crime or something like that yeah we went into 301 studios and we all set up to play live and
21:15don sat at
21:15this uh the beautiful grand piano and he's playing it and he could see he was like fidgety and it
21:20didn't
21:20sound right from wasn't sort of edgy enough and he's going i don't like it can i use that piano
21:25over
21:25there they said oh that's not really a recording piano it belonged to hillsong yeah and don said
21:30just bring it over here but let me try it we tried it and it was the best sounding piano
21:34ever
21:38very bright aggressive yeah don plays piano like he's got boxing gloves on he plays really heavy it's
21:42good and at the end of the sessions we said look we would love to buy that piano and oh
21:47you'd have to
21:48give them what they paid for it we said okay how much they paid they said 200 dollars oh no
21:53yeah and
21:54that's literally been here and don uses it when he records he records quite a bit here and i just
21:59love the fact that it's don's and we get to use it all the time and every time we play
22:03it it sounds
22:04like don oh and you've got a little bit of don here i've got a little don with me all
22:07the time that's
22:07nice
22:14how does a song start for you i've got books everywhere but this one in a tartan excuse me
22:21of course yeah well i've started up my lyrics um this i had this book since about 2000 year 2000.
22:29oh yeah right you can see at the front here it was going to be a diary oh yeah but
22:33then i didn't
22:33want anybody to read it uh so i turned it over flipped it over i flicked it over and started
22:38writing
22:38lyrics and i just thought anything that comes to mind i've got set lists i've got ideas for song titles
22:43i've got things there's lyrics in here that i don't want anybody to ever see
22:46for and some because they're so bad some because they're so drug crazed some because they're so
22:51personal and some because i was in the process of working out what i felt uh but since that time
22:57i've done you know at least 10 albums and this book's represented on nearly every album that's
23:03amazing it's water wash all over me squeeze me till i cannot breathe blind me so i cannot see
23:08uh what else will drop back glove well we've all been there i want to talk to you about collaboration
23:15because that's been a huge part of your musical life you collaborate a lot what do you get from
23:21that and what are you reaching out for when you might think about a collaboration i haven't sang with
23:26a singer that i haven't learned something from whether it's something not to do or something to do you
23:31know like uh you know look at tina you know i remember singing with her and her ability to switch
23:36it on
23:36on a dime singing with hutch you know i just good times that was a song that we picked together
23:42because uh glenn a baker sent us a version of good times which is a it was an easy beats
23:47b that's right
23:48and singing with michael it just made me sing different notes
23:53it was a happy surprise that this easy beats classic lent itself so well to the contrasting voices
23:59of two revered australian singers creating a new energy and requiring much more of the artists
24:12they were a band that had serious groove it sounded just like them and to get a foot in the
24:17door and actually be a part of that sound for a minute was was really special interesting you should
24:22mention that song because it's something you actually did with um your lovely daughter mahalia
24:27as well that song yeah let's have a look
24:55what does it feel like singing with your daughter uh it's incredible i mean how are you
25:00singing with me in the band since she was about 14 and you know all the girls have been in
25:04and out
25:05of the band it's something about family singing together it's a beautiful thing it's a lovely thing
25:27culture is a really in a sense will am i right in saying always continue to exist in one form
25:33or
25:33another as long as we're standing and we can and we can play loud and proud we'll play you know
25:39when when
25:39steve passed you know we literally we took the wind out of all of ourselves we didn't think we'd ever
25:43play again as a band and it was it was so strange because um we were brothers and i couldn't
25:49imagine
25:50another drummer fitting in for steve you know and then after a little while somebody said oh have we
25:56thought about you know charlie drayton and charlie told me a story that the day steve died when the
26:01news came out he and chrissy because he was chrissy was his amplett was his partner chrissy amplett
26:06who fantastic friend of mine dear friend of mine when the news came out you know she said to to
26:11charlie said you know i think if they're going to play again you're going to get a call and he
26:15went
26:15took me silly and then about four or five months later you know somebody said you should try you
26:20should try charlie and so we we rang and he said i was waiting for your call that's right he
26:26never
26:26tried to play like steve but he always paid homage to steve and took the band to a new place
26:32and
26:32you know i can't say that it's better than it was because there's something about steve's
26:37liverpool aggression that i loved that's missing but i think charlie brought more swing to the band
26:44and which is really interesting because we're not quite as heavy as we used to be but we swing and
26:49like a rusty gate it's really really great it's not about bludgeoning people to death anymore it's
26:55more about you know killing people softly with the grooves you know and i think that gives us that
27:01means we've got another 20 years that we've still got to experiment with that you know
27:07there's a certain swagger when you walk on stage with the best guitar player maybe in the world
27:12certainly in this country and the best two singers
27:19and when i get to sit next to charlie drayton who everybody in america wants to play with
27:24and you feel like king for a little for a short moment
27:28and she won't be around
27:33thank you
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