Jimmy Barnes opens up about love, Cold Chisel's new tour and life after near-death health scares

The Senior

Jimmy Barnes said he was "healthier than ever" as he and his wife Jane sat down with ACM and The Senior to talk recovery, reflection and their delicious new cookbook. Watch highlights of the exclusive interview here.

Transcript

00:00I'm probably healthier now than I've been for years.

00:02I'm fighting fit because of the change cooking and the gardener.

00:05I'm really healthy.

00:11What is it that keeps your love just lasting and thank you?

00:16It's like everything.

00:18The thing that makes the roses grow is effort and work and care and love.

00:25And that's the same with a relationship.

00:28It's the very same thing.

00:30You know, I mean, one of them.

00:31Really well and really easily.

00:33And also, we're so opposites.

00:36We're different.

00:37We're so different.

00:38Jane's so calm and I'm so not.

00:40And because we're so different, we sort of complete each other.

00:43It is more about balance.

00:45Balance.

00:45Jane's always been very balanced.

00:49It's never in my strong suit.

00:52So are you like the yin and the yang then?

00:54You kind of, you know, meld together nicely?

00:56Yeah.

00:57See, sometimes.

00:58And listen, there's some things.

01:00Sometimes Jane's more extreme than me.

01:02So that's not very often.

01:05But, you know, I mean, I like to sleep.

01:09I like to sleep in.

01:10And, you know, when I say sleep in, you know, at 8.30 in the morning or something like that.

01:14Jane likes to get up at 5 in the morning.

01:15I wake up in the morning and I can smell coming from the kitchen.

01:19Jane's been spent four hours in the kitchen by herself, which she loves, you know, baking bread and sourdoughs and all.

01:26And I wake up and there's this fresh bread smell coming down and, you know, and her coffee with freshly baked bread.

01:31And, you know, my day starts great.

01:33Her day starts great.

01:34And then we'll go to the pool and swim.

01:36So it's beautiful.

01:36There's been three years of health issues.

01:41Yeah.

01:41So while I've been in bed recovering, Jane's been...

01:44Yeah.

01:44It's also been a bit of a trip hazard for you to be too much in the garden.

01:49How is your health going, Jimmy?

01:51Oh, I'm fighting fit because of the Jane's cooking in the garden.

01:54I'm really healthy.

01:55No, I mean, it took a few years and it was sort of one after the other after the other.

02:00I've got heart condition.

02:01I had back trauma.

02:02I had hip problem.

02:03I had the hip replacement.

02:04I got staph infection.

02:05So it took like a good three years of care to get over it.

02:09But I'm good.

02:10In the meantime, I was touring with cold chisel and doing all that sort of stuff.

02:14So I'm probably healthier now than I've been for years.

02:16And that we've dedicated the book to the...

02:20The doctors and nurses.

02:22Yeah, doctors and nurses.

02:23The doctors.

02:23Saved his life.

02:24Yeah.

02:25Princess and St. Luke's.

02:27And because you wouldn't be here.

02:29No.

02:29Otherwise.

02:30I'd be able to join my garden.

02:32Now, Jimmy, you're about to hit the road.

02:35Jane, how are you feeling?

02:36I mean, are you feeling nervous letting him go out, back doing all this hard slog on the stage?

02:41You know, the first incident three years ago, did the heart surgery, went to his back.

02:53He went out on the road.

02:54Too soon, the hip got infected, a staph infection.

03:01They had to put in a temporary hip.

03:04He went out with cold chisel.

03:06Sort of like...

03:07They said, don't do anything for 12 weeks.

03:10And I was in rehearsal with cold chisel after seven.

03:13You know, because I had it booked and I couldn't cancel.

03:15I didn't want to cancel.

03:16I didn't want to let people down.

03:17Yeah.

03:17So he pushed through all of that.

03:20So now I'm healthy.

03:21And this last final hit was early February.

03:27And like, yeah, what are you, eight months old?

03:29I feel that you're starting to...

03:32But I'm traumatized.

03:35I just like...

03:35Just take it easy.

03:38Yeah, please.

03:39I'm not going to be swinging off the rafters.

03:41I'm not going to be jumping from PA stacks and crowd surfing.

03:45There won't be any of that.

03:46I'm looking forward to getting on the road.

03:48You know, I mean, it's really...

03:49It's another aspect of our lives which has helped, you know, bring us joy.

03:54You know, and being in the band with some of my kids and Jane on stage with me,

03:59it's one of the things I love a lot.

04:00You know, to turn around and be singing and see Jane playing bagpipes,

04:04nothing brings more joy to me.

04:06And it's a bagpipe so that I can get over them.

04:09She's lighter than us, sir.

04:12I tell you, I can't.

04:13And I'm just savoring from being sad.

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