Jimmy Barnes: Cold Chisel, Working Class Man and 16 number 1 albums | Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion

Why fans still care

JIMMY BARNES has 16 solo number 1 albums on the ARIA chart, more than any other artist. That puts him two ahead of the Beatles (on ARIA’s post-1965 count) and three ahead of Taylor Swift. Add Cold Chisel and that’s two ARIA Hall of Fame inductions, one with the band in 1993 and one solo in 2005. “An album is successful to me when I put everything down on tape,” he told ARIA.

Early life

He was born in Glasgow in 1956 and came to Australia aged five. “I came here at five years old with nothing but dreams,” he said when he was made an AO. The family settled in Adelaide, and that’s where his music started.

Career chapters

1. 1973joins Cold Chisel in Adelaide
2. 1978Cold Chisel’s debut album
3. 1983Cold Chisel announce the split in August
4. 1984Bodyswerve, his first solo number 1
5. 1985For The Working Class Man reaches number 1
6. 1993ARIA Hall of Fame with Cold Chisel
7. 2005ARIA Hall of Fame as a solo artist; Double Happiness reaches number 1
8. 2017made an Officer of the Order of Australia
9. 2019My Criminal Record sets the ARIA record for number 1 albums
10. 2024Cold Chisel’s 50 Years – The Best Of reaches number 1
11. 2025Defiant, his 16th solo number 1
12. 2026Working Class Man 40th Anniversary Tour
13. 2027Red Hot Summer Tour

Cold Chisel 1973 to 1983

He joined Cold Chisel in 1973 as a teenager. The albums Cold Chisel, Breakfast at Sweethearts and East made the band a pub and radio fixture, and most of the hits came from the pen of Don Walker. Cold Chisel toured the UK and the USA in late 1982 and announced the split in August 1983.

Going solo 1984 to 1992

Bodyswerve went to number 1 in 1984, and so did every solo album after it through to Soul Deep in 1991: For The Working Class Man, Freight Train Heart, Barnestorming and Two Fires. For The Working Class Man held number 1 for seven weeks.

The record 2005 to 2025

Double Happiness went to number 1 in 2005. Cold Chisel reformed in 2009 and added No Plans and The Perfect Crime. In 2019 My Criminal Record gave him his 12th solo number 1 and the ARIA record, passing Madonna and U2 on 11 each. Flesh And Blood, co-written mostly with Diesel, followed, and Defiant made it 16 in June 2025.

2026

The Working Class Man 40th Anniversary Tour closed its Australian leg at Rod Laver Arena on 10 April, with Iva Davies, Who’s Who number 10, and Icehouse, Ian Moss and Kate Ceberano as special guests. Next comes the Red Hot Summer Tour 2027, eight shows with Jon Stevens, Who’s Who number 21, on the bill.

Craft, sound and style

The voice

The voice is the instrument. Moss told LiSTNR that, “almost like overnight”, Barnes found “this incredible range” in the early Chisel years.

The soul records

Soul Deep in 1991 took him into the soul songbook, and it became one of his biggest records. At the 1992 ARIA Awards it won Highest Selling Album and he took Best Male Artist.

Working with others

Good Times, his duet with Michael Hutchence, Who’s Who number 15, is on The Lost Boys soundtrack. Diesel co-wrote most of Flesh And Blood.

Stories people still tell

1. Flame Trees.

   The Cold Chisel song from 1984’s Twentieth Century was in the set when the Working Class Man 40th Anniversary Tour closed at Rod Laver Arena in April 2026.

2. Khe Sanh.

   As ABC News tells it, radio wouldn’t play Cold Chisel at first. Now, it says, multiple generations of Australians can blast out the words to Khe Sanh.

Legacy

ARIA calls him the artist with the most number 1 albums in its chart history. The National Portrait Gallery holds three portraits of him. He was made an AO in 2017, in the same honours list as Paul Kelly, Who’s Who number 20, and Nick Cave, Who’s Who number 28.