Jimmy’s new focus
Memoir reveals pilates replaced booze, drugs
JIMMY Barnes now measures his vices by a nip rather than a bottle.
To lubricate his gravelled tonsils before a show, he will sip a shot of single malt whiskey as he runs through a series of wall-shaking warm-up screams backstage.
After decades of a hedonistic rock’n’roll lifestyle, abusing his body with alcohol and drugs to escape the mental anguish of the harrowing childhood he shared in his first memoir Working Class Boy.
As its sequel Working Class Man is released today, Barnes said his new vice was pilates and recently he tried surfing.
And his grandfather babysitting duties keep him way too busy to risk lapsing into old habits.
“I will sometimes have a drink of whiskey at night if I am putting my feet up and watching some TV,” he said.
“I don’t drink to get smashed anymore. I’m not destructive anymore. I can have a glass of wine, I’m not a big wine drinker, but if it’s a really nice wine, I’ll have a taste.
“I never drank for the taste, I drank to get hammered. Not anymore. I just want the taste. I’m not taking drugs. My vice at the moment is pilates. I’m getting pretty good and I’m starting to get strength.
“I’m just doing normal s..., I’m writing songs again, I’ve been recording. I don’t have time to waste. If I had a big night now it would f... up my schedule for so long, I don’t have time to be out of commission. I don’t know how I did it before.”
In the Working Class Man memoir, Barnes reveals time and time again how he tried to conquer his addictions.
He tried everything, taking sessions with wellness guru Deepak Chopra, meditating with monks, going to spas and rehab clinics.
After decades of falling off the wagon, he finally found a therapist he could work with to deal with the bigger issues of childhood trauma which came flooding back after watching the Snowtown movie in his hotel room while on tour.
“I think one of the things that was really important was around 2012 I started going to see a therapist. I tried to see a few before but as soon as they said something I didn’t like, I wanted to smash them in the face and leave,” he said.
“I knew I had to see someone and finally I found this one person, Peter, who seemed to work for me. I still didn’t like what he said and I was an uncomfortable as s... sitting down and talking about myself, especially about the mistakes I made.
“But we persevered. “Eventually the rapport happened and he started helping. That, with the help of my family, and me helping myself, taking responsibility for myself, I took my own power back with a bit of help from friends.”
Jimmy’s Working Class Man: An Evening of Stories & Songs national tour will run from March to May next year. Tickets on sale 10am today. See www.jimmybarnes.com for dates and ticket information.
Working Class Man by Jimmy Barnes, published by HarperCollins, available now.