STACK #201 Jul 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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FLESH, BLOOD, & ALWAYS LOVE JIMMY'S TRIUMPHANT 20th ALBUM

Dedicated to late industry icon Michael Gudinski, Flesh and Blood thrums with all the irrefutable heart we've come to count on from its creator, Jimmy Barnes. Words Zoë Radas

A t the suggestion that a career in bonsai tree maintenance might be on his horizon, Jimmy Barnes gives a peal of husky laughter. The truth is, that's one of the few creative endeavours the Oz-rock icon hasn't plumbed over the course of his career – let alone just the last few years. There's his award-winning memoirs, podcast adventures, lockdown family- band livestreams, consistently excellent recorded music, an upcoming cookbook written with his wife Jane, and a children's book, called Rosie The Rhinoceros . “Rosie's my granddaughter – she's so great!” says Barnesy tenderly. “She's like a bull in a china shop; she's one of those girls that just charges through everything, but she thinks she's a delicate unicorn.” He tells the adorable story of Rosie's frustration when Jimmy's daughter Elly May, playing a game during a car-trip, assigned her the alliterative moniker – and Rosie's determination to disprove it. Says Barnesy: “I wrote it for her, because it's about being anything you want. If she wants to be a unicorn, then she's a bloody unicorn!” It turns out these endeavours aren't even the start of the line of irons in the fire for the 65-year- old. “I've made a rockabilly record, it's already finished, which is really cool,” he says. “I've got two or three different books that I'm writing at the moment, like fiction stories, stuff that I'm trying to get through; I've just got to try and find time to finish them all,” he says simply. “I'm

Cover of Jimmy's upcoming children's book, Rosie the Rhinoceros , available September 29.

record – and no, that number does not include the nine albums which came before-and-within this solo output, as the frontman of Cold Chisel. The album arrives dedicated to Barnes' dear friend, the late Michael Gudinski, and features an astonishing array of Barnes-clan musicians in its liner notes. There's of course his daughters Mahalia, Eliza-Jane and Elly-May on vocals, his granddaughter Tyra Harrison on vocals, son-in- law, nephew, granddaughter, and his wife on a beautiful rendition of Love Hurts – which features Jane in the lower harmony, and Jimmy in the upper. “Unfortunately, I do sing much higher than Jane,” Barnesy smiles. “[Our version] is based on the Gram Parsons and Willy Harris version, so I'm Willy Harris and Jane's Gram Parsons.” It's one of the tracks the couple performed during the Jane Barnes Band lockdown sessions, the comments around which Jimmy definitely had his eye on. “People were writing every night, 'Ooh you're so lucky! Look at that look in Jane's eye! She loves you so much!' and I kept thinking to myself, 'If we'd have had the

hyperactive, I like to keep busy. Life's good and I'm feeling inspired, and I feel like I'm growing as a human being. I think my best work is still to come.” The work this interview is about, however, is new studio album Flesh and Blood . It's his 20th

JULY 2021

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