Jimmy Barnes to undergo urgent surgery
Jimmy Barnes has been forced to cancel his upcoming tour to undergo urgent surgery.
The 66-year-old said the five decades rocking on stage and being bent at the waist will see him under hip and back surgery.
His final performance will be held the first weekend of December at Valo Adelaide 500 before he goes in for surgery.
“I’ve been jumping off PAs and stomping around stages for nearly 50 years, but it’s finally caught up with me,” Barnes said in a statement.
“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.”
Barnes joked that his family would have to deal with him playing his record Blue Christmas during his recovery.
“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,” he said.
He thanked The Hoodoo Gurus for stepping in and covering his shows as it means “other bands will still get their chance to rock”.
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