Keith Urban is one of many notable Australians who make an appearance on the new album by Jimmy Barnes. Titled 30:30 Hindsight , Billboard reports the record is Barnes’ 15th solo effort and features collaborations with many prominent Aussies and some from outside the continent. In addition to Urban, Barnes’ guest stars include Tina Arena, Journey and Steve Van Zandt of the E Street Band.
News.com.au reported Thursday that Barnes’ new record, which celebrates 30 years of his career as a solo artist, reached number one just as the rocker was rushed to hospital after a complications from a back procedure. The site states Barnes has been ordered to remain in bed for at least a week following his release from hospital. A representative of Barnes’ label joked he was “over excited about his number one,” and Barnes himself said:
“I am very lucky to have a great surgeon and as much as I don’t want to have to respect their advice to remain in bed, I will but I can’t wait to be up and about as soon as possible.”
As for the Urban and Barnes duet, it is a personal and musical venture for both. Urban steps a bit outside of his country zone to record the classic Easybeats song Good Times , which is not a Barnes original, but a song with which he has a long history. He recorded a successful version of the song with INXS in the late 1980s and reportedly has had difficulty performing it since the death of Michael Hutchence.
Hutchence died in 1997 . As Barnes told News.com.au :
“Everyone loves it, they want me to play it and I didn’t want to play it any f—ing more because it’s not the same without Michael.”
He said he chose Good Times to play with Urban because the two are long-term friends and shared a common foe: addiction. He credits Urban for being there during some difficult times:
“There were times when I was really going hard, getting hammered, and I don’t know why but I would get a text out of the blue from Keith in America saying, ‘Are you OK, mate?’… He’s a decent bloke. I pick[ed] Good Times for us to do to tip our hats to friendship and because we have shared this common journey. As we did with Michael and we lost Michael along the way.”
Check out the full clip of Keith Urban and Jimmy Barnes recording Good Times below. As Billboard points out, that’s Jimmy Barnes’ son Jackie James Barnes on drums.
As reported last week by Rolling Stone, Keith Urban is nominated for Album of the Year and several other trophies at the upcoming CMAs, scheduled for November 5th.
[Image: News.com.au/Google]
