Jimmy Barnes opens up about life, love and family.

“I WAS WORRIED ABOUT IT. I DIDN’T LIKE THE IDEA OF BEING REJECTED”

As father and son moments go, they don’t get much more emotional – or public – than Jimmy Barnes’ revelation to David Campbell.

Introducing his son, David, to a live audience at Sydney’s State Theatre, the legendary Cold Chisel frontman says the one thing he’d change about his extraordinary life is the chance to spend more time with David, when he was younger.

“He needed his dad and I needed him,” Jimmy says, before David joins him on stage to sing Marmalade’s “Reflections of the Past”. The touching scene is part of the incredible documentary movie, Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Boy. “That was a beautiful moment,” Jimmy, 62, says of performing with Today Extra presenter David. “It was as if I’d orchestrated it for us to heal, which of course, I didn’t.” In the movie, David is moved to tears as he sings alongside his dad and later admits it was a big deal to him for his father to talk about their relationship. “It was true (what I said on stage),” a candid Jimmy says. “I knew it a long time ago, but those feelings tied in with all of the other things from my past. It all made more sense because I am really aware that we need each other more than ever.” David is the result of a short-lived relationship between Jimmy and a woman named Kim. The two separated and David was raised by his maternal grandmother. In recent years, Jimmy and David have forged a closer relationship.

This is one of the more moving scenes in the movie, which is based on Jimmy’s best-selling 2016 autobiography, Working Class Boy. Elsewhere, Jimmy details his harrowing younger years rife with domestic abuse, alcohol and poverty.

“For two years, I have been talking about it, writing about it and making a movie,” Jimmy says of his childhood.

The movie was released in cinemas earlier this year and is now set to be seen by a wider audience on free-to-air television.

“It’s done very well in the theatre and it’s nice to get it [the movie] out on free-to- air for people to see,” Jimmy says. “Even people who have seen the live show or read the book might want to see it. It’s going to be a big thing.”

Jimmy was born James Dixon Swan in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1956. These were hard, cold and grimy years, which Jimmy recalls with little fondness. It’s here, Jimmy says in the movie, where the family’s troubles really began. Alcohol-fuelled violence was rampant inside Jimmy’s home, he says in the movie. And he’d often prefer to play outside in the dirty alleys than be inside.

Going back to film scenes for the movie was tough, Jimmy concedes. “It was a little bit frightening,” he says. “I left Glasgow when I was young, but I always felt some kind of connection with the city.”

Going back helped Jimmy put into context what he’d

remembered of his youth and it gave him “some kind of closure”.

“It was rough at first,” he says. “But truth be known, I think I feel a bit of a connection to it now, as opposed to feeling fear and not knowing why.”

When the family moved to Australia in 1962, Jimmy was 5.

In the movie, Jimmy also reveals his heartbreak when his mother, after suffering years of physical abuse at the hands of Jimmy father’s Jim, abandoned the family. Jimmy later took solace in gang life and fighting.

Then, out of nowhere, Jimmy was offered an audition to sing in a band. At the time, he had no idea it was for Cold Chisel.

“I was worried about it because if they didn’t like me, I didn’t know how I’d react,” he says. “I didn’t like the idea of being rejected.”

Fortunately, the rest of the band hired him and so began Jimmy’s amazing career with classic Aussie band, Cold Chisel, famous for hits such as “Khe Sanh”, “Flame Trees” and “When the War is Over”.

“Chisel are one of the greatest bands in the world,” a proud Jimmy says. “Those songs helped save my life.”