Jimmy Barnes lands a No. 1 hit on the nonfiction charts with his third book Killing Time
Jimmy Barnes completes a hat trick of No. 1s as an author as his third book Killing Time joins Working Class Boy and Working Class Man as a bestseller. LISTEN TO HIS NEW PODCAST
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He holds the record for the most No. 1s albums in ARIA chart history and now Jimmy Barnes can claim a hat trick of book chart-toppers with his third tome Killing Time.
Following the phenomenal success of his Working Class Boy and Working Class Man memoirs, Killing Time debuted at No. 1 on the Australian nonfiction bestsellers list after its first week of sales.
The working class writer has sold more than half a million books since turning his pen to prose to document the harrowing and hilarious tales of his extraordinary rock’n’roll life.
He is now working on his first book of fiction – a horror story based on his own life and set in his native Glasgow – and also helping wife Jane craft their first cookbook.
“I’m grateful to everyone who’s supported this new book – it’s never taken for granted, the humble rocker said.
“Writing all these short stories helped me pass time over a challenging year. Hopefully, reading them can do the same for other people.”
COOKING CONTEST
It’s become Jimmy Barnes’ collection obsession and MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo is his chief enabler.
If the chef gets a new big boy’s cooking toy, the rocker is keen to add it to his burgeoning collection of grills, smokers and myriad kitchen wizardry.
“You’re as bad as me! I’ve never seen anyone, other than myself, with as many cooking things – a wood-fired pizza oven, a normal pizza oven, two green eggs (outdoor cookers), a state-of-the-art smoker, thermo-mixes and you’ve got a pasta machine now,” Zonfrillo jokes on the final episode of the Story Time with Jimmy Barnes podcast this week.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW:
The pair first bonded after Barnes dined at the award-winning Restaurant Orana in Adelaide, introduced by Barnesy’s daughter Megan Torzyn.
Torzyn and Zonfrillo had worked together before the chef opened his award-winning Restaurant Orana, which he announced last week would not reopen post COVID after engaging KPMG administrators to sell its assets to pay creditors.
The Scottish and Italian chef gifted his rocker mate an Italian pasta maker for his birthday in April and Barnes had to confess during their podcast catch-up he had destroyed the machine the first time he tried to use it without his supervision.
“He showed us how to use it and then I go to use it again – I had Ben my son-in-law help put it together – started it up and it made this horrible metal on metal noise and I destroyed the pasta machine,” Barnes says in the podcast sneak peek.
“It was all bent inside and to get this fixed, you’ve got to send away to Italy. Oh f …, I can’t tell Jock I’ve wrecked the pasta machine.”
Luckily, Barnes managed to find the spare part he needed in Sydney and the next time the Zonfrillos were visiting, they cranked out the pasta.
“I stand there and watch everything that he’s doing; I want to write things down but I don’t want to be that cheeky stealing his recipes. But now I just call him and ask how do you cook that?” the singer said.
While Barnes has shown his own gift for writing with two best-selling memoirs and his third book Killing Time released this week, he is also an avid curator of music.
As his thousands of fans and new followers have learned during the Barnes family pandemic performances, he has an eclectic and extensive collection of favourite songs he likes to cover.
But his and Zonfrillo’s love of music generated an epic playlist of more than 35 hours of music when they collaborated on the soundtrack for the Orana In Residence pop-up restaurant in Sydney last year.
While the restaurant may no longer exist, the playlist of more than 500 songs, from Nina Simone and John Lennon to Silverchair and Tame Impala, remains on Spotify.
“I still listen to it at home; Jane is always asking ‘Is that one of yours or one of Jock’s (songs)?’” Barnes says.
THE BOOK
Get your copy of Killing Time by Jimmy Barnes, published by HarperCollins Australia.
THE PODCAST
Join Jimmy and family for Story Time with Jimmy Barnes wherever you get our podcasts — plus exclusive behind-the-scenes content at storytimewithjimmybarnes.com.au
Originally published as Jimmy Barnes lands a No. 1 hit on the nonfiction charts with his third book Killing Time