Jimmy Barnes announced today that he requires back and hip surgery which will unfortunately prevent him from performing live for several months. He is completely confident of making a full recovery and hitting the road again in the second half of 2023.
“I’ve been jumping off PA’s and stomping around stages for nearly 50 years, but it’s finally caught up with me”, explains the Australian rock icon. “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.”
His headlining set at Valo Adelaide 500 on Saturday, 3 December will proceed as planned. Jimmy then needs to withdraw from all his other live commitments over summer to undertake this essential operation and allow the time needed for recovery. He sends his sincere apologies to the fans and music workers who will be impacted.
Ticketholders for all the affected Jimmy Barnes concerts (excl. Bluesfest) will be contacted via email by the event promoters. Detailed information will also be posted on the websites of each individual show, but Coffs Harbour is being postponed until 21 October 2023, Sandstone Point will move to 5 August 2023 and Hobart unfortunately needs to be cancelled due to line-up and venue availability issues.
Thankfully Hoodoo Gurus have agreed to step in on the Wollongong, Torquay and Rochford Wines gigs early next year so those three dates will go ahead as scheduled but with this new line-up.
“I’m very grateful that the Gurus have agreed to headline these three big gigs in my absence”, said Jimmy. “We played some great shows together last summer so I know audiences will be in good hands. Their addition to the top of the Wollongong, Torquay and Rochford line-ups also means that the other bands on the bill, like The Living End, Wolfmother and Noiseworks, will still get their chance to rock. That’s important for everyone after all the disrupted touring over recent years so I strongly encourage people to #keepyourticket and support some of our finest Aussie artists at these shows.”
The surgery also means that Jimmy’s appearance at Summernats 35 in Canberra on Friday 6 January 2023 can’t go ahead, but his long time mates Jon Stevens, Daryl Braithwaite and Diesel have come in to fill Jimmy’s Summernats 35 spot. Jimmy has already confirmed he will be back for Summernats 36 in January 2024.
Stranded In The Whitsundays week has also had to be rescheduled to 23-28 August 2023 and the planned Byron Bay Bluesfest unveiling of his new project, The Barnestormers will not be able to proceed in 2023. For a full listing of the new Jimmy Barnes touring schedule please click here.
Meanwhile, Jimmy’s highly anticipated new album Blue Christmas – his first ever collection of holidays songs – was released last Friday.
“At least I know what present I’ll be giving everyone this year”, Barnes joked. “The operation will keep me cooped up over summer and I’m a notoriously cranky patient, so I probably need to buy noise cancelling headphones for my family too – that way they’ll hopefully still be talking to me when I’m back on my feet.”
