'I Was Really Quite Afraid': The Moments That Made Jimmy Barnes In The Early Cold Chisel Days

Following on from his record-breaking 13th #1 album on the ARIA Album Charts late last week, it's hard to imagine a time when Jimmy Barnes wasn't a total force to be reckoned with, on or off the stage.

But while his latest album Flesh and Blood is a celebration of love, truth and family, the explosive live presence of Jimmy Barnes was something that took time, stemming back to his teenage years joining Cold Chisel.

On last week's episode of The Green Room podcast, Barnes chatted with host Tiana Speter about the brand new album, before diving deeper into the long and unexpected road that led to the modern-day success story; and Barnes wasn't always the rambunctious rockstar onstage most would now have seared into their memories at the mere mention of his name. 

"It took a while," Barnes mused, as he reminisced about his first gigs with Cold Chisel at the age of 16. "I used to get onstage and I was really...I was really quite afraid.

"I remember...quite a few gigs I did, I sort of faced the back of the stage, I didn't look at the audience at all."

It would take Barnes approximately six months of performing with Cold Chisel before something finally clicked, and the apprehension gave way to salvation, in more ways than one. 

"There was a point where I think...suddenly I felt this connection with the audience," Barnes recalled.

"And that was, sort of, very, very liberating. I went coming from this fear-based thing, to feeling the first, I guess, moments of feeling any control in my life. 

"And then I tried to, of course, destroy that."

Barnes would go on to embody and wholly embrace the wild child rocker trope as his career exploded into a practically a new stratosphere, and recalled the turbulent times where he felt entirely out of control on the latest episode of The Green Room. But amid the chaos, a guiding force still permeated in the form of Cold Chisel, proving time and time again to be the irreplaceable lifeline Barnes so desperately needed.

"Amongst all this wildness... the only time I would feel that control was when I was onstage singing with that band," said Barnes. "It was like being in the eye of the storm, the whole world was spinning around me, but I'd be standing on the stage and it'd be dead still. And I'd just be there and I could go: "there's the song'. And it would just come out. 

"They were the moments that kept me alive."

Growing up in Elizabeth, a former working-class suburb north of Adelaide, Barnes had previously had his head turned towards entirely different pursuits well away from the musical realms; and, as he revealed on The Green Room, his foray into performing and, more specifically, into singing was a unique chain of events very few could've ever predicted.

"I used to play football. I always loved music, but I wanted to be a bass player!" Barnes recalled. 

"I remember, the reason I took up singing was (laughs) my first band, that was, like, when I was like 14, my first real band...we rehearsed up all these songs. And we had a singer who was a goalkeeper in our football team, he was a big, big good lookin' fella...

"We didn't know each other that well, and rehearsed all these really tough rock'n'roll songs. We got to our first show, and he turned up. Unbeknownst to us, he was a massive sort of David Bowie fan. And he turned up in fishnet stockings and eye makeup and high heels and stuff. And we said: 'you're not coming onstage with us like that'. 'Cos we were a hard rock band, and we were playing in Elizabeth, where I grew up, which was a really tough place - we would've got killed!

"So, he left the band before we started the first gig. And I had to sing that night," Barnes laughed. "

"I only sang because we didn't have a singer, and nobody else in the band could sing. And then I couldn't play bass and sing very well, so I thought: 'alright, I'll get rid of the bass', and one of my mates played bass, and I sang.

"And eventually, it became something that I really loved."

Few could've predicted the trajectory Barnes would take from that moment, journeying from accidental frontman to one of the most prolific musicians of all time. And as Barnes now sits armed with his 20th solo studio album and a tour on the horizon to christen yet another critical smash in the form of Flesh and Blood; he's also quick to pay significant credit to the impact Cold Chisel has had, not just from a musical perspective, but also on an extremely personal level. 

"All of these songs I'm really looking forward to playing live," Barnes said of his latest album Flesh and Blood.

"And I'm also looking forward to...I want the show to be a bit of a trip through...all aspects of love and life and family. And that includes Cold Chisel.

"I grew up in a sort of dysfunctional family...when I joined Cold Chisel when I was 16; they became my family. And they're my brothers. 

"So there'll be some of those songs in this tour as well, because they're part of my essence. And songs like Working Class Man, which is a song that's sort of burnt into my soul because of where I came from.

"It doesn't matter how many good cars I get, or how many nice houses, or whatever I've got; that's always there in my vision, the fact that I came from that, and that I can see people out there going through the same thing as I've gone through.

"Even in my darkest times, and in my wildest days, the family were the thing that grounded me...otherwise I would've floated off long ago.

"Music has been the key to that connection. I owe a hell of a lot to being able to perform."

Given the ongoing outpouring of love from fans and critics for decades alongside the ever-growing Barnes legacy; it's safe to say the adoration and connection is more than mutual. 

 You can watch the full podcast video with host Tiana Speter below; and you can also catch up on the full The Green Room podcast episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts (below) - or wherever you usually grab your favourite podcasts!

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Tickets for Jimmy Barnes' upcoming Flesh and Blood tour are on-sale now. Head to theGuide for all upcoming tour dates and more info.

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Need more music, film, TV and comedy in your life? Check out all previous episodes of The Green Room here - and did you know you can also watch episodes of The Green Room too? Head here to check out some of the recent videos, and if you're still hunting for content to feed your ears, be sure to check out the some of the other exciting Handshake Agency podcasts below!

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