Jimmy Barnes makes music comeback with new band The Barnestormers

Jimmy Barnes has been recuperating with his wife Jane after hip surgery in the couple’s beloved second home in Thailand where a new addiction has fed the rocker’s competitive drive in time for a big comeback.

Jimmy Barnes has developed a healthy addiction during his rehabilitation after hip surgery: swimming.

The 66-year-old rocker who has been recuperating with his wife Jane in their beloved second home in Thailand has always loved swimming, but his competitive instincts are driving him to become expert at the sport.

“I’ve been doing laps in the pool and I’m going to get some swimming lessons because I have been swimming all my life but I don’t sort of move very far. I get a work out but I don’t go very far … I’m a rock swimmer,” he joked.

Jimmy Barnes says he’s ‘fighting fit’. Picture: Jesse Lizotte

Barnes was forced off the road late last year to have his pre-Christmas hip surgery after years of debilitating pain from a lifetime of throwing himself around stages.

He said he had been following doctor’s orders to be patient during his post-op rehabilitation – a quality the indefatigable rocker doesn’t possess.

“I got here to Thailand and two weeks in I’d started going ‘Let’s get some heavy weights and for two days I couldn’t walk and then I went back to what I was supposed to be doing,” he said. “But in saying that, I’m fighting fit.”

Not long after the surgery, Barnes launched his rumoured rockabilly global supergroup and has been teasing The Barnestormers band in recent weeks.

It’s the rocker’s first band project since Cold Chisel co-stars American rockabilly royalty Slim Jim Phantom of The Stray Cats, his close mate Chris Cheney from The Living End, and British television and music star Jools Holland.

The seeds of the project were first sown more than 30 years ago when Barnes enlisted The Stray Cats to open his Australian tour in 1990.

A lunch in Los Angeles 20 years later, which also included Cheney, again had Barnes insisting they should all make a rockabilly record together.

Chris Cheney, Slim Jim Phantom, Jimmy Barnes and their families hatched The Barnestormers at a LA lunch in 2010. Picture: Supplied / Chris Cheney

When global touring ground to a halt during the pandemic, producer and studio wizard Kevin Shirley, who was connected to all of the musicians, said “you’ve got to do it now.”

“I was like ‘How do we do it? We’re all locked away,’” Barnes said.

“Kevin was the motivator from hell who got us all of our arses and working. He hooked us all up, would record each of us and send the tapes around the world.”

While the men were frustrated they couldn’t make their album in old school fashion in a garage somewhere, Barnes and Cheney said they marvelled at Shirley’s considerable skill in assembling the parts recorded remotely in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and London.

Barnes and Cheney have played together many times over the years. Picture: Supplied

There is also connection to Barnes’ old band Cold Chisel, with the first single Johnny’s Gone written and recorded by Don Walker in the early 1990s for his side hustle Catfish.

“Once the word got out that I was doing a rockabilly record, my friends were sending songs from everywhere; Don sent a couple of his own and 50 of his favourites, Paul Field suggested the Chuck Berry song Dear Dad,” Barnes said.

All of the Barnestormers grew up on rockabilly. As a teen, Cheney was practising Buddy Holly and Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley’s guitarist) riffs as his friends jammed on Nirvana and Guns N’ Roses songs.

The niche rock’n’roll genre is enjoying a generational refresh kickstarted by the viral success of The Cramps’ version of Goo Goo Muck after it featured on the hit Netflix series Wednesday.

“I think you would probably find there’s kids in garages all over the whole of America doing (rockabilly),” Barnes said.

Barnes hopes to use his considerable powers of persuasion to get this band on the road.

“We had some (live) things planned, but they fell through because of my surgery. So now we’re recalculating to see what we can do because it is difficult to get everybody in the same place at the same time. The thing is, we all want to do it,” Barnes said.

Slim Jim Phantom and Cheney have also been mates for many years. Picture: Supplied.

The 66-year-old rocker will give his hip its first live test in May when he joins the Australian Chamber Orchestra for their concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House.

Balance work going well, new hip holding up better than the old one. Pool exercises have helped no end. One of the best things about coming to Thailand is the freshly squeezed orange juice, there’s nothing like it, and of course the fruit. Enjoy your weekend. pic.twitter.com/yv2WRRFSPv

— Jimmy Barnes (@JimmyBarnes) March 3, 2023

The Barnestormers self-titled debut album is out on May 26.

Originally published as Jimmy Barnes makes music comeback with new band The Barnestormers