What Is Jimmy Barnes’ Net Worth?
Jimmy Barnes is an Australian music icon and author who has a net worth of $20 million. Jimmy Barnes began to make a name for himself with the Australia-based band Cold Chisel. After the band moved multiple times and went through some strife within the group, they signed with WEA in the late 1970s. The group split up in 1983, and their farewell concert tour still stands as the highest-grossing tour in Australian history. Cold Chisel has reunited several times, and they have released the studio albums “Cold Chisel” (1978), “Breakfast at Sweethearts” (1979), “East” (1980), “Circus Animals” (1982), “Twentieth Century” (1984), “The Last Wave of Summer” (1998), “No Plans” (2012), “The Perfect Crime” (2015), and “Blood Moon” (2019).
As a solo artist, Barnes has released more than a dozen #1 albums, including the 7x Platinum “For the Working Class Man” (1985), the 6x Platinum “Two Fires” (1990), and the 10x Platinum “Soul Deep” (1991). Jimmy has published the memoirs “Working Class Boy” (2016), “Working Class Man” (2017), and “Killing Time: Short Stories From the Long Road Home” (2020) and the children’s books “Och Aye the Gnu” (2017) and “Rosie the Rhinoceros” (2021), and he published “Where the River Bends: Recipes and stories from the table of Jane and Jimmy Barnes” (2021) with his wife. “Working Class Boy” was adapted into a 2018 documentary. In 2017, Barnes was appointed an Officer of the Order Of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the performing arts as a musician, singer and songwriter, and through support for not-for-profit organisations, particularly to children with a disability.”
Early Life
Jimmy Barnes was born James Dixon Swan on April 28, 1956, in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the son of Dorothy Swan and prizefighter Jim Swan, and he grew up in a Protestant household with siblings Linda, John, Alan, Lisa, and Dorothy. Jimmy’s family immigrated to Australia in the early ’60s, settling in Adelaide before moving to Elizabeth. Barnes has said that he was abused by his father, as were his siblings and his mother. Dorothy and Jim divorced shortly after the 1962 birth of their sixth child, and Jimmy later adopted the surname of his stepfather, Reg Barnes.
Career
In 1974, Barnes joined the band Cold Chisel, and though he left the group several times, he appeared on the albums “Cold Chisel” (1978), “Breakfast at Sweethearts” (1979), “East” (1980), “Circus Animals” (1982), and “Twentieth Century” (1984). All five albums were certified Gold or higher in Australia, with “East” going 5× Platinum. “Circus Animals” and “Twentieth Century” reached #1 on the Australian ARIA Charts. Cold Chisel disbanded in 1983, but they reunited in 1997, 2003, and 2009 and released the albums “The Last Wave of Summer” (1998), “No Plans” (2012), “The Perfect Crime” (2015), and “Blood Moon” (2019). The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993 and the South Australian Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2016. After Cold Chisel’s 1983 split, Jimmy embarked on a solo career, releasing the album, “Bodyswerve” in September 1984. “Bodyswerve” topped the ARIA Charts, as did his next four studio albums, “For the Working Class Man” (1985), “Freight Train Heart” (1987), “Two Fires” (1990), and “Soul Deep” (1991). All five albums went 2× Platinum or higher in Australia, and “Soul Deep” was certified 10x Platinum in Australia and 3x Platinum in New Zealand. “Freight Train Heart” featured the single “Too Much Ain’t Enough Love,” which reached #1 in Australia, #4 in New Zealand, and #3 on the “Billboard” Mainstream Rock chart, and “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby” (with John Farnham) from “Soul Deep” went Platinum in Australia.
The albums “Heat” (1993), “Flesh and Wood” (1993), and “Psyclone” (1995) reached #2 on the ARIA Charts, and “Heat” included the Platinum single “Stone Cold.” In 2000, Barnes performed at the Sydney Olympics’ closing ceremony, and he released the album “Soul Deeper… Songs From the Deep South,” which reached #3 on the ARIA Charts and went Platinum in Australia and Gold in New Zealand. Jimmy followed it with the #1 albums “Double Happiness” (2005), “The Rhythm and the Blues” (2009), “30:30 Hindsight” (2014), and “Soul Searchin'” (2016), and 2007’s “Out in the Blue” and 2010’s “Rage and Ruin” peaked at #3 on the ARIA Charts. In 2017, he released the children’s album “Och Aye the G’nu,” followed by the #1 albums “My Criminal Record”(2019), “Flesh and Blood” (2021), and “Blue Christmas” (2022). Jimmy’s memoirs “Working Class Boy” (2016) and “Working Class Man” (2017) were both named Biography of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. In 2021, he formed a rockabilly band with Chris Cheney and Slim Jim Phantom, and in June 2022, he released the #1 album “Soul Deep 30,” a reissue of 1991’s “Soul Deep” with extra tracks.
Personal Life
Jimmy married Jane Mahoney on May 22, 1981, and they have welcomed four children together, Elly-May, Jackie, Mahalia, and Eliza-Jane. Barnes also has a son named David with Kim Campbell and two daughters from previous relationships, Megan Torzyn and Amanda Bennett. Jimmy’s brother-in-law is fellow musician Mark Denis Lizotte, who goes by the stage name Diesel and is married to Jane’s sister. Lizotte has performed on many of Barnes’ albums. Jimmy is a Buddhist, a Port Adelaide Football Club fan, and an Australian Labor Party supporter. In November 2022, Barnes announced that he would soon undergo hip and back surgery, stating, “I’ve been jumping off PA’s and stomping around stages for nearly 50 years, but it’s finally caught up with me. I’ve had niggling back and hip issues for years, but things suddenly got a lot worse over the last few weeks and I’m now in constant and severe pain. As everybody knows, it’s against my religion to blow out gigs but the Doctors tell me I need an operation as soon as possible and it will really limit my movement for a few months. As much as it kills me to inconvenience everyone, I have to get this fixed so I can jump around onstage for another 50 years.”
Awards and Nominations
Barnes was inducted into the ARIA Awards Hall of Fame with Cold Chisel in 1993 and as a solo artist in 2005, and out of more than 25 nominations, he won for Best Male Artist for “Barnestorming” in 1989, Best Male Artist and Highest Selling Album for “Soul Deep” in 1992, Best Children’s Album for “Och Aye the G’Nu” in 2017, and Best Original Soundtrack or Musical Theatre Cast Album for “Working Class Boy: The Soundtracks” in 2018. At the APRA Awards, Jimmy won the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music (with Cold Chisel) in 2016, and “Shutting Down Our Town” won the award for Most Performed Rock Work in 2020; “Flesh and Blood” was nominated in that category in 2022. “Birds on a Wire” (with Troy Cassar-Daley) was named Vocal Collaboration of the Year at the 2006 Country Music Awards of Australia, and in 2008, Barnes won an Astra Award for Favourite Male Personality. Jimmy has also earned an AIR Award nomination for Best Independent Rock Album or EP for “Flesh and Blood” (2022), Helpmann Award nominations for Best Australian Contemporary Concert for “30:30 Hindsight Greatest Hits Tour 2014” (2015) and Best Cabaret Performer for “Working Class Boy: An Evening of Stories & Songs” (2017), and a “Rolling Stone Australia” Award nomination for the “Rolling Stone” Readers’ Choice Award (2022).
Real Estate
In 2014, Barnes paid AUD$1.6 million for a four-bedroom, four-bathroom warehouse in Botany, New South Wales. In 2021, he put it on the auction block for AUD$4 million. The home includes a caterer’s kitchen, a lounge area, and two recording studios.