After finding fame with pub rock legends Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes became an Australian icon through the success of his solo career. Having escaped his hard-knocks upbringing, married the love of his life and released a string of number-one albums, the man known across the country simply as ‘Barnesy’ had seemingly made it. But financial issues, heavy drug use, gruelling tours, a failure to crack the US and the spectre of childhood trauma all still weighed upon him, eventually finding their release in words – as this intimate new account reveals.