Jimmy Barnes brokers landmark deal for tell-all book

A burglary and drug addiction is what stopped Cold Chisel frontman and rock and roll hero Jimmy Barnes writing his tell-all book.

When his laptop was stolen in the early ‘90s the burglar took his 30,000 words with it. Then in 2001 during his battle with what he calls “a severe drug addiction”, Barnes “skirted around everything I needed to write about.”

Now, the rock legend and Cold Chisel co‐manager John Watson have brokered a landmark publishing deal with HarperCollins for the global rights to his two-book autobiography.

The first book Working Class Boy, which covers Barnes’ traumatic childhood and the excess of his formative years, will be published in hardback and e‐book in October 2016.

John Watson told TMN the decision to write the autobiographies wasn’t primarily a commercial move.

“Over recent years he’s been coming to terms with his very troubled past, so writing the books was and is all part of that healthy process of reflection,” Watson said. “As it happens I think that’s exactly why his writing will strike a really broad chord with readers – it’s a brutally honest attempt to make sense of a very difficult upbringing and an extraordinary life.”

Barnes said he spent most of 2015 writing, in between touring his ARIA #1 solo album 30:30 Hindsight and Cold Chisel’s largely sold out One Night Stand tour. He’s currently working with the book’s editor Nicola Robinson on the final draft.

The second, currently untitled second book will be published October 2017. It will cover the fame, music, drugs and rehabilitation that percolated the Cold Chisel, solo and soul years.

Incredibly, Barnes has the same number of #1 albums as The Beatles: 10 solo chart toppers plus four more with Cold Chisel.

“No holds barred,” said Barnes. “The good, the bad and the very ugly.”

This year Harper Collins will also publish memoirs and biographies including The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones, Living Like A Runaway by Lita Ford, LA Reid’s Sing To Me and Ten Ways Not To Commit Suicide by Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.