Jimmy Barnes' 40 YEARS OF LOVE

Theirs is a rock’n’roll romance for the ages

When Jimmy Barnes spied dark-haired stunner, Jane Mahoney, at an event in Canberra in November 1979, the Aussie rock legend knew she was The One. All that stood between them was the fact that she wasn’t quite as interested – and that he was dating not one, but two other women at the time!

Despite the Cold Chisel frontman’s somewhat awkward prior commitments – and the fact Jane put him in a taxi and ended their first night separately – he must have made an impression because she agreed to spend the following day with him – and married him two years later. In his biography Working Class, Man, Jimmy wrote, “I’d met a lot of girls in my life, but no one had ever stopped me in my tracks like that girl did. She was way out of my class, but I loved her from the minute I saw her. Jane would change my life.”

THE FAMILY WAY

Jimmy, 64, and Jane, 63, had three daughters and a son together – with their kids forming child band The Tin Lids – and rapidly became the first family of the Aussie music industry.