EVER since Jimmy Barnes first left Cold Chisel in 1983 there's been one man he's confided in on every musical decision prior to an album release or tour.
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But as Barnes prepares to release his 20th studio album Flesh and Blood on Friday, it'll be without the guidance of late Mushroom supremo Michael Gudiniski.
Gudiniski died in his sleep on March 2 aged 68, leaving an insurmountable hole in the Australian music industry.
Flesh and Blood was among the last records Gudiniski listened to.
"To be doing a record and tour without him is a strange feeling, there's an emptiness there," Barnes says.
"I was really pleased before Michael passed away, two weeks before, he heard the finished record and he was really excited. He particularly loved the track Flesh and Blood, that's why we played it at his funeral.
"I remember him ringing me every day saying, 'Ok, this is how we're gonna attack this'.
"Michael was like this with a lot of people in the industry, but with me particularly, he was really close and like my brother. He was godfather to my daughter [Mahalia Barnes]. He was as much a part of my family as anyone.
To be doing a record and tour without him is a strange feeling, there's an emptiness there.
- Jimmy Barnes
"So it's a huge loss. We had almost 40 years working together and friendship, so we were pretty lucky. Most people don't get that."
The loss of Gudiniski - who was only three years older than Barnes - has naturally left the rock'n'roll legend contemplating his own mortality.
It's only further ignited Barnes' endless thirst for work and creativity.
"You're here to do as much good work as you can," he says. "I'm always hyperactive and I know the records I wanna make and the books I wanna write.
"I wanna be a better husband, a better father, a better singer. In order to do that, I've gotta push myself right now.
"It made me realise there is an infinite time you're on Earth and you've gotta do this. You can't rest on your laurels.
"Time is precious and enjoy it with the people you love and get some work done."
Barnes has taken his own advice over the past 15 months. COVID-19 undoubtedly wrecked havoc on the music industry, cancelling tours and wiping out livelihoods, but there's been some silver linings.
Barnes and his wife Jane bunkered down in their Southern Highlands home during the pandemic, writing books and songs, cooking, doing Pilates and entertaining fans with social media performances.
"Usually I tour all the time," Barnes says. "I realised last year, because we had to stay home, that we'd never stayed in the some place more than a couple of weeks at any time.
"COVID made us live with ourselves. I had to learn to settle myself down and focus and not run off and do this."
Spending that time with Jane was especially precious. After 40 years of marriage - an eternity in the decadent rock'n'roll world - Barnes says it brought them closer together. That led to Jane singing a duet, Love Hurts, on Flesh and Blood.
"We're now communicating at another level again, as collaborators on records and songs," he says. "It's brought a new thing into this relationship.
"You think you know everything about each other, but we learnt more. Just the choice of songs, how we did them, the effect they had on us. It showed us points in our life where we're fragile or where we're strong or flawed."
Not surprisingly, given it was written during COVID-19, Flesh and Blood is album about family and the bonds that bind us.
Barnes' son Jackie played drums on the record, while his daughters Mahalia, Eliza-Jane and Elly-May all contributed vocals, as did Jackie and granddaughter, Tyra Harrison.
Ben Rodgers, Jimmy's son-in-law, engineered the album and played bass.
"My kids have been involved in a lot of records and tour with me, but this one I got them involved in writing and production and getting them involved emotionally, rather than it just being my record," Barnes says.
"It is my record, but it's a record about us and our relationship so it was a different sort of involvement."
Flesh and Blood follows Barnes' acclaimed 2019 No.1 album My Criminal Record, which continued his late-career renaissance kick-started by the Working Class Boy memoir. The lyrics were driven by reflections on the volatile relationship of Barnes' poverty-stricken parents in Glasgow, and his own marriage and family.
"I'm looking at families and relationships from my perspective of what I know and trying to make sense of it," he says.
"I want people to know that relationships aren't about falling in love and everyone being happy all the time. It takes time and effort, you have to stay in it and go through the tough times and the good times."
Initially Flesh and Blood was imagined as an acoustic album and the successor to Barnes' 1993 album Flesh and Wood. But once Barnes got into the studio his rock tendencies came to the fore.
"I still see it as an acoustic record, but I laugh because people are saying it's the loudest acoustic record in the world," he says.
Jimmy Barnes' Flesh and Blood is out Friday.
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