Wow, I don’t even know where to begin with this review. I’ve always been a fan of Jimmy Barnes music, having grown up with my parents playing Cold Chisel and his solo music. As I’ve gotten older and followed him on social media, and have been lucky enough to see him perform live, I’ve seen what a great performer he is but also seen how important his family is to him.

On the periphery, I always knew Jimmy had had a tough up bringing but what I thought I knew about his childhood was completely blown out of the water by reading this book. Jimmy writes candidly about what it was to be a child of a working class, immigrant family in the 1960’s in Adelaide. Being brought up in a household, family and wider community, where alcoholism, abuse and domestic violence were part of the “norm” and wasn’t discussed, as that’s just what happened in life.

Working Class Boy begins with Jimmy as a young child living in the slums of Glasgow and ends with him leaving Adelaide to pursue his music career with Cold Chisel. Everything in between is a deeply personal, honest, darkly funny, at times uncomfortable and often confronting account of Jimmy’s early life, the years that shaped him into the man he was to become.

I highly recommend this book, but not to those who are faint of heart, and I’m keen to read the follow on book Working Class Man.

This was a freebie from audible. I tried really hard to like it but it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Sorry Jimmy, it’s a DNF from me.

Really engaging style of storytelling of a very challenging childhood

I use to think Jimmy Barnes was just some Aussie Rocker who drank too much, took way too many drugs & would die prematurely. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an Aussie legend - but I have little tolerance for that livelihood.
Then I picked up Working Class Boy. Holy sh*t. What a story. Is this even real? How did he survive this? He grew up POOR - & I mean, poorer than what I thought poor meant. Born in Glasgow, he knew nothing but poverty & violence. Kids killing kids. Parents & neighbour were mean drunks who beat each other, their kids, & anyone else they could get their hands on. The family jumped on a ship to Australia when Jimmy was 5 & the conditions were horrible. If he was a cat, he was already down 2 or 3 lives by the time he arrived in Adelaide. Australia wasn’t any better for the family. Jim’s dad drank all their money, their mum left, & the kids were left to fend for themselves. Imagine scrapping around enough dollars to buy a bag of potatoes to live on for 2 weeks - this was their reality.
His childhood friends were molested, beaten, witnessed suicide, rapes & so much more. The little girls were all highly sexualised from not knowing anything but sex.
Then jimmy’s mum turned up, with her new husband, Reg Barnes. Jimmy reckons Reg saved his life. I tend to agree. Reg came across jimmy’s mum in a pub crying, he asked her what was wrong, & she said, “I need to find a husband so I can get my kids back”. “I’ll marry ya”, he replied.
The book ends just as Jimmy joins Cold Chisel.

I listened to this as an audio book; read by Barnsey himself. It was like we were sitting at a coffee shop having a yarn. I cried with him, I laughed with him, & by the end, I fell in love with him.
Jimmy Barnes is now one of my fav artists - I seen him perform last year in Newcastle, cold chisel earlier this year in the Hunter Valley & I’ll be live streaming his Lizotte’s show later this month.

I can’t thank Jimmy enough for sharing his story - it can’t have been easy. What a bloody legend.

Jimmy Barne’s biography as a child/youth.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jimmy, poignant and personal. My dad's favourite singer, he's such a superstar and this is a story worth listening to, regardless of the status of the storyteller. Jimmy has become a huge vocal spokesperson for the need for domestic violence services in Australia and this story explains why he knows about it firsthand. Heartbreaking.

Great first part of Jimmy's biography in what was a horrid and rough uprbringing. The first book is about his early life up until he leaves Adelaide in his late teens. Have always loved Cold Chisel so this was a nice autobiograpy to read. Onto the next one now

Surprisingly both charming and sad. I loved Jimmy Barnes as a kid and it's so nice when your childhood hero turns out to be not horrifically problematic and actually kinda ace.