Jimmy Barnes talks being No.1 again, moving forward after exorcising his demons

This included stories about his turbulent childhood in Adelaide where he and his siblings lived in poverty and endured constant violence from an alcoholic father.

The memoirs Working Class Boy and Working Class Man both became award-winning biographies and reinvigorated interest in the 63-year-old.

Both most importantly, it allowed Barnes to harness his emotions. All the rage, fear and guilt he lugged from his childhood through more than four decades in rock'n'roll with Cold Chisel and as a solo artist was exorcised.

Suddenly the songs started flowing. After collaborating with his Cold Chisel bandmate Don Walker and the likes of country star Troy Cassar-Daley, brother-in-law Diesel and The Living End's Chris Cheney, Barnes delivered his first album of original material in nine years.

My Criminal Record debuted on top of the ARIA charts two weeks ago, giving Barnes his 16^th No.1 album and surpassing global superstars U2 and Madonna.

"People come on board for some things and jump off for others," Barnes says. "I don't expect everyone to like everything I do, but it seems that the learning curve I took in writing those books and doing those spoken-word tours has bled through and people seem to like where it's going and like the sound of the songs."

My Criminal Record is the most authentic album Barnes has produced in years, if ever.

Whereas his most famous solo track Working Class Man, which was written by Journey's Jonathan Cain, is littered with mythologised American blue collar cliches like "blue denim in his vein" and "still mad at Uncle Sam", Barnes is brutally direct on My Criminal Record.

REVIEW: Jimmy Barnes gets back to his roots on My Criminal Record

On the bluesy title track he sings, "I came from a broken home/My mamma had a broken heart," and "My daddy had a problem/But he always seemed to find himself a drink."

Is this the most real Jimmy Barnes album ever made?

"This record is a good moving-forward record," he says.

"Although it talks about subject matter from the books, I think it's me looking forward and leaving that all behind and I couldn't have done that without going through that whole process of self-analysis and self-education. I looked at my life and learnt from it."

My Criminal Record also marked a shift in the creative process. Where previously Barnes felt too "intimidated" by the lyrical prowess of Walker to pen his own words, this time he took the plunge when working with his Cold Chisel bandmate.

READ MORE: Beyond Cold Chisel: Don Walker celebrates his songs with Blacktop tour

"Because it was my story and so connected to the books, I had to write the bulk of the lyrics," he says. "This songwriting process started with me writing lyrics and sending them to Don, which was completely opposite to what we normally do, and then we got together and Don would come up with music and help me with the lyrics."

One cover on the album, which feels custom made for Barnes, is John Lennon's haunting Working Class Hero. It serves as the bleak flipside of Working Class Man.

Barnes started performing the song on his book tours and it resonated so fiercely he "worked up to a frenzy."

"John was always very dark and bitter, even with The Beatles," he says. "When he went solo with Plastic Ono Band his music got really dark and acidic and really bitter and quite twisted. I really liked it."

Barnes is so confident in his new material he's planning to perform eight or nine songs on his upcoming album tour, after road-testing several to audiences last summer.

"Quite often I'll slightly miss the mark with songs," he says. "I make a record and then I'll go to play the songs live and they don't fit into the live set.

"My brief to myself was to write songs I could slip into my set that would sound like what I do live," he says. "I'm first and foremost a live performer and I want the records to reflect that."

Jimmy Barnes brings his Shutting Down Your Town tour to the Newcastle Entertainment Centre with Jet on October 25.