Jimmy Barnes shares his lucky escape from a terrorist bombing in his new podcast episode
Jimmy Barnes has revealed how he escaped a terrorist bombing overseas and rejected the rock’n’roll rule book to take his family on the road in America. LISTEN TO HIS NEW PODCAST
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It was a split second decision which saved the lives of Jimmy and Jane Barnes and their grandchildren.
In Bangkok for a charity gig, the family decided to head out to a restaurant across the road from their hotel and right near the famous Erawan Shrine where they had often stopped during their travels to Thailand to make a wish and give thanks to the gods.
There was a large crowd in front of the shrine that August night in 2015 and roadworks surrounding it which would make pushing the stroller with their grandson Dylan difficult to navigate.
Taking the long way around instead of the shortcut directly past the shrine saved their lives. A terrorist bomb exploded at exactly that moment, killing 20 and injuring more than 100 people.
“We had to take him the long way around – Jane loves my short cuts, she calls them the scenic route,” he says in this week’s episode of the Killing Time with Jimmy Barnes podcast.
“Jane would always take me to that shrine to make wishes and give thanks.
“We would have been at the gate where the bomb went off if we hadn’t thought this is too hard to do with the baby, let’s go this way.
“We were literally between buildings, so we were sheltered from the spray (of the blast) and you could feel the whole building shake. We were incredibly lucky.”
LISTEN TO JIMMY BARNES’ NEW PODCAST EPISODE HERE:
Joined by Jane and Mahalia for this week’s episodes, they share their other lucky escapes. He was playing a gig at the Hard Rock Hotel in Bali when the accommodation building was destroyed by a fire.
The next night, they would have been in the middle of the Kuta when the bombs went off in the Sari Club had their youngest daughter Elly May not misbehaved at dinner and her parents decide they wouldn’t take her shopping for souvenirs.
The Barnes have always travelled together for work and pleasure, with Jimmy joking he entices them to join them for holidays because “they love it when I pay for everything.”
But the truth is, after a childhood when his own parents were absent for much of young early life, family is everything to the rocker.
So when he started touring as a solo artist, both in Australia and overseas, it didn’t matter that it wasn’t the done thing. The wife and kids were coming on the road.
“I remember going to America and they didn’t want family or parents or wives or anyone on the road … they wanted the rock’n’roll lifestyle,” he says.
“When I said I wanted to bring my wife and children on tour in America, they thought I was crazy.
“I remember touring with ZZ Top in 1986 or 87 and we had the band in one tour bus and got another bus just for the family and the nanny. And they were ‘Really? Are you crazy? It’s gonna cost you so much.’
Jane says their Partridge Family style bus set-up actually inspired other rockers to bring their loved ones on tour.
“The funny thing about that tour was Frank Beard, the ZZ Top drummer, had just had twins and he actually asked to talk to Anne-Marie our nanny about having children on the road and having his own family bus,” she says.
Mahalia, who now has to navigate touring with her musician husband Ben Rodgers – who plays in the Barnes band – and their two daughters Ruby and Rosie, said there is a misconception that the rock’n’roll life isn’t suited to bringing up children.
“People assume that being in the music industry, it’s very difficult to have kids because we don’t have the stability, you don’t have regular income, we travel a lot, we’re all over the place,” she says.
“But actually we have a lot of time in the day which means you have more time with your kids than a lot of people in nine to five jobs do.”
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 shares his lucky escape from a terrorist bombing in his new podcast episode