Jimmy Barnes Interview

Written by Meg Hewitt

Rock legend Jimmy Barnes wrote his new album while recovering at home from open-heart surgery last February.

Titled OUT IN THE BLUE, the album refers to the long amount of time his illness gave him to reflect on his life and career.

Meg: so what have you been up to lately

Jimmy: well besides lying around bleeding and recovering for heart surgery

Meg: Er..yep!

Jimmy: I had heart surgery in February, I was born with a heart valve defect and it actually clamped up on me towards the end of the year and they said I would have to have surgery immediately

Meg: yep

Jimmy: so I went in February and had open heart surgery, had a valve replacement and um now sorta serviced and ready to go for another 50 years

Meg: wow

Jimmy: but part of that process was supposed to be a couple of months recovery but um I sorta I think my body developed an auto immune system that reacts to the invasion of the surgery and protects the heart by putting fluid around it and it gets really painful and you cant breathe and stuff so I after about 8 weeks I got an attack of that and they had to take me back into hospital and cut me open again. They kept me in for a week and let me out. I started walking again I did a show, got another attack they put me back into hospital where they did it with drugs this time and anti inflammatory and then they put me in bed for a couple of months and they said look you cant move, so this is getting on 6 months so I was going stir crazy so I started practicing guitar and `before I knew it I was writing about 40 songs. That’s where the bulk of my new album came from. Its called out in the blue

Meg: and where does that come from

Jimmy: its basically sorta having that time to reflect and look at your life and the year and being in a near death situation um and your reflecting your life

Meg: What kind of things occurred to you during this time?

Jimmy: I figured that since probably the age of ten I have sorta been out somewhere trying desperately to be liked and haven’t really been myself. I have always tried to be the life of the party, I was always top of my class, captain of the soccer team, always tried to drink more than other people and party more than other people. All those things are really handy if you want to be a rock n roll singer but not really good if you want to keep living.

Meg: Have you changed your diet at all since?

Jimmy: I don’t eat meat any more the valve in my heart is made from a cow, so I figure I owe the cow.

Meg: do you have a myspace or a facebook?

Jimmy: My kids set it up for me, I had a myspace and a facebook just as a fan club thing but then it got too weird too many weird letters coming in, sort of strange so I shut it all down. I think they’re really really good as a tool for young bands but for me I was running it for myself and it just got too personal and too weird some of the things people wrote, you just don’t write those things to people bit twisted especially when you don’t know them

Meg: What do you think of Nikki Webstar performing at sleaze ball?

Jimmy: do you want the honest truth

Meg: yep

Jimmy: I don’t think there is anything sleazy about nikki at all. I didn’t get it, I have lots of gay friends, I know people who went and had mixed reports. Some people thought it was atrabilious. I have got nothing against Nikki I don’t know her very well I just don’t think she is that type of artist I don’t think she has enough depth for that sort of show

I think sleaze and Mardi Gras for me can be vehicles for really great shows the ten minute performance that each act puts on can really be something special.

Meg: so tell me about your 50th birthday I hear it was a hoot

Jimmy: I had a huge party in Thailand, my wife is Thai so I go over there 2 or 3 times a year. It was a great party all my mates preformed for me, Neil Finn got up and did a crowded house thing I remember sitting on the beach in Thailand with the music wafting up the beach and thinking all these people on holiday will be thinking god that sounds like Neil Finn. Amelia Air Hard and Magadoona, two drag queens put on a show for me which was spectacular then they presented me with a drag kit in case I ever want to do a drag show

Meg: and what was in the kit

Jimmy: fake eyelashes. fake tits, stockings, a razor to shave my legs, there was all sorts of things

Jimmy’s new album OUT IN THE BLUE (is excellent by the way) and available at all good record stores