Jimmy Barnes reveals the identity of the real Working Class Man ahead of 40th anniversary tour

After his shock Triple J debut, Jimmy Barnes is marking Working Class Man's 40th birthday with an all-star line-up of 80s legends.

Jimmy Barnes didn’t have Working Class Man landing on Triple J’s Hottest 100 on his list of ways to celebrate this year’s 40th anniversary of his signature anthem.

“It’s really nice to actually get airplay on Triple J; it’s the first time in 40 years,” Barnes said laughing.

Australia’s favourite rock star will see out the year with the Working Class Man 40th Anniversary Tour as the song clearly finds a younger audience, generating more than 70 million streams in recent years.

With Australian music fans tripping on 80s rock and pop nostalgia, Barnes has enlisted Icehouse, his Cold Chisel bandmate Ian Moss and Kate Ceberano for the mini-festival shows later this year.

It’s back to the 80s with the Working Class Man anniversary tour. Picture: Mushroom Creative House / Supplied.

The tour kicks off at Mount Duneed Estate in Geelong on November 22 and then heads to Sirromet Wines in Mount Cotton November 29, Bimbadgen, Hunter Valley on December 6, The Regatta Grounds, Hobart on January 17, Peter Lehmann Wines in the Barossa Valley on January 31 and Sandalford Wines in Swan Valley February 7.

Barnes and Icehouse frontman Iva Davies go way, way back to the late 70s when Chisel and Flowers (who became Icehouse in 1981) were both signed to Dirty Pool.

That independent booking agency completely disrupted the Australian music industry in favour of artists getting the primary share of ticket sales instead of agents and venues.

Davies and Barnes were labelmates and industry disrupters back in the early 80s. Picture: Mushroom Creative House / Supplied.

“At the time Premier Artists had a stranglehold on the industry and then the managers of the two biggest band in the country, Cold Chisel and The Angels decided to break away and form their own agency,” Davies recalled.

“And they were looking for a younger band, so the ‘apprentices’ they found was Flowers.”

Barnes said Flowers became regular openers for Chisel shows as the synth band’s popularity grew off the back of singles Can’t Help Myself, We Can Get Together and Walls.

The rocker said he even offered up his bedroom as a location for the video shoot for Walls.

“Jane and I lived in this house just around the corner from Dirty Pool, and our bedroom was in a small ballroom, it was beautiful, and Iva came and filmed there,” Barnes recalled.

“So we were mates and label buddies in Dirty Pool, fighting against the monopolies and toured a lot together. Iva was there when I met Jane in Canberra in 1979!”

Barnes and Kate Ceberano (middle) have been sharing stages since the mid 80s. Picture: Supplied.

Working Class Man has long been regarded as Barnes’ signature song, the anthem to unite not only his audience in loud crowd karaoke at his shows, but instantly recognised from the opening line “Working hard to make a living.”

But the truth is the song isn’t about Barnes. It was written by Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain in 1985 after a conversation with the Aussie rocker about his fans.

“He was really interested because he had heard they were wild audiences in Australia and I don’t think Journey had ever played here,” Barnes said.

“I told him about my audience being hard working, doing nine-to-five in factories, and come Saturday night, kicking their heels up and going berserk. You could see him taking it all in.

“About a week later, he rang up and said ‘I’ve written a song for you called Working Class Man.’ And my immediate gut reaction was, ‘Oh f …, he’s written a song about me called Working Class Man, how cliche is that?’

“And he said ‘It’s not about you, it is about your audience.’ When I heard the demo, it was just incredible. The minute I heard it, I knew that it was sort of a career-defining song.”

Cold Chisel had two songs in the top 10 of the Hottest 100 Australian Songs. Picture: Frontier Touring.

Icehouse also proved wildly popular with the more than 2.6 million voters for the Hottest 100 Australian Songs countdown last weekend, with the evocative classic Great Southern Land peaking at No. 35.

While these revered artists may have cut their teeth in Australia’s notorious beer barns in the 80s, now they get to play wineries.

The first shot at tickets will be via the Telstra Plus Member presale on August 4 from 10am via telstra.com/music

MG Live, Face To Face Touring, and Jimmy Barnes fan club presales open on August 6 ahead of the general sale from 2pm on August 7. All ticket and tour information via mg.live.

Originally published as Jimmy Barnes reveals the identity of the real Working Class Man ahead of 40th anniversary tour