Jimmy Barnes reveals the chapter from new book Killing Time which reduced him to tears for months
Jimmy Barnes is writing a new book, which features a collection of more than 40 tales from the rocker’s extraordinary life — including one that repeatedly brought him to tears.
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It took Jimmy Barnes “months and months” to write the chapter called Money For Bones for his new book Killing Time.
The rocker turned best-selling author has shared harrowing tales of poverty, abuse and addiction across his memoirs, Working Class Boy and Working Class Man but writing about his beloved schnauzers Oliver and Snoop Dog brought him to tears every day.
The doting doggy dad and wife Jane lost their beloved companions within 10 months of each other, with Oliver passing away in July last year after a short illness and Snoop before him in 2018.
“Whenever I was heading off to work and would get the suitcase out to pack, the two schnauzers would jump into the bag; they didn’t want me to go,” Barnes said.
“They’d get the s...s, jump off and stare at the wall, and I’d tell them ‘I’m going out and making money for bones.’
“Every time I went to write about my two dogs, I’d start at 10am and be back in bed a couple of hours later, crying until that night. It literally took me months that (chapter).”
Oliver and Snoop were his sounding boards when he was writing the first two books. They would sit at his feet while he read chapters out loud to them to test the flow of his stories.
“I think it is the worst I have ever felt in my life losing those two guys; they were my little anchors, my little lights,” Barnes said.
“I’ve got my boys on the mantelpiece – we had them cremated – and I have been reading these stories to them; I heard a woof, I’m sure.”
Killing Time, subtitled as “short stories from the long road home” is expected to be released by Harper Collins later this year, possibly in October according to Barnes, and is a collection of more than 40 tales from the rocker’s extraordinary life.
Some are haunting, others heartwrenchingly sad, like Money For Bones.
But many stories revisit the hilarious and unpredictable happenings on his crooked path to musical success and reckoning with his demons.
Among the yarns his legion of Australian fans may find intriguing will be those set in Los Angeles, where Barnes spent much time in the 1990s and early 2000s, writing and recording his solo projects, crossing paths with legends and celebrities, and indulging his voracious appetite to “get really out of it a lot!”
The master storyteller shares one ridiculous night heading home from the studio in a limo, amped up on booze and cocaine, and demanding his driver stop at a bottle shop so he could buy more vodka.
“I looked like an extra from Arthur (the Dudley Moore film). Right next door to the bottle shop was a fortune teller,” he said.
“I walked in the wrong door and found myself surrounded by red velvet drapes, the candles burning, the crystal ball, the works – it definitely wasn’t the bottle shop – and suddenly this woman appears looking like Stevie Van Zandt’s sister, with the bandana and all the jewellery.”
The fortune teller – after guessing his name and a couple of other details, as they do – informed Barnes there was a curse on him and she would reveal the person “close to me”, who was responsible for the bad juju if he paid her $1000.
Out of it and paranoid enough as it was, he left without paying. When he drove past it the next day on he way back to the studio, the shop was boarded up, as if she had never been there.
While in LA, Barnes also became close to New Age guru Deepak Chopra and was invited to his home for a dinner party.
It was one the rocker will never forget, as he found himself seated next to a legendary American civil rights activist.
“I didn’t know who these people were – billionaires and philanthropists, people like fashion designer Donna Karan – and I was sat next to this older, black woman who had bodyguards with her who looked like followers of Louis Farrakhan (American minister and activist),” Barnes said.
“I finally introduced myself to this lady. She was Rosa Parks. Halfway through dinner, she got up and made a speech about what happened on the bus in Montgomery.”
Barnes is using his self-isolation time to edit Killing Time and write songs inspired by his stories, which he hopes to record as a companion album for the tome.
And he’s singing daily for fans with “my girl” Jane accompanying him for their social media mini-concerts most days.
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During this Isolation period I’ve been doing a lot of Lookin’ out my back door. I’ve been looking out my front door too, haven’t seen anybody. Keep up the good work and I ll keep sending snippets to entertain you pic.twitter.com/ZT7FEAE8Eq
— Jimmy Barnes (@JimmyBarnes) April 9, 2020
She has rediscovered her own musical skills since the pair began self-isolation at their Southern Highlands home after returning from Thailand last month.
“I am loving having Jane trapped with me, I’ve got her 100 per cent attention,” he said, laughing.
“Watching the birds flying around, the river, the trees and we get up every day and learn a tune; she’s practising for hours and really enjoying it. It’s beautiful.”
Barnes’ publisher Helen Littleton, Head of Non-Fiction for HarperCollins Australia said her award-winning author’s new work is “is a back-stage pass to Jimmy’s epic and wonderful life with his wife Jane.
“Jimmy’s writing sparkles. His stories are funny, warm, generous, wise and cheeky — tissues recommended for the tribute to his beloved dogs.”
Killing Time, short stories from the long road home, will be released by Harper Collins later this year. You can pre-order via Booktopia here.