Jimmy Barnes
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James Dixon Barnes (né Swan; born 28 April 1956) is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time. By 2022 he had achieved 15 solo number-one albums in Australia, more than any other artist. He has won many awards, and been nominated for many more. In 2005 he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as a solo artist, after also having been an inductee in 1992 as a member of Cold Chisel. His music has covered many genres, including hard rock, blues rock, soul, R&B, country, country rock, and electronic. Some of his albums were recorded at his own recording studio, Freight Train Studios.
Several of his children are musicians who have on occasion joined him on stage, including drummer Jackie, his sisters Mahalia, Eliza-Jane ("EJ"), and Elly-May, and elder half-brother David Campbell. His wife Jane formed the Jane Barnes Band in the family home during the COVID-19 lockdowns, which in 2023 toured Australia.
Barnes' first memoir, which told of his poverty-stricken and traumatic childhood years, Working Class Boy (2016), was followed by a sequel published the following year, Working Class Man. For these, he won the Biography of the Year award at the Australian Book Industry Awards for two consecutive years.
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