Cold Chisel recalled a hilarious but frustrating story about the time they tried to crack America in a revealing new interview.
In the latest episode of ‘Behind The Rolling Stone Cover’, sponsored by Shure, Rolling Stone AU/NZ Editor-in-Chief Poppy Reid sat down with Cold Chisel’s members – Jimmy Barnes, Ian Moss, Don Walker, and Phil Small – to look back at their Rolling Stone 2011 cover and share their thoughts on their last five decades.
“He was our point of entry to America. We were doing one show in Los Angeles, we were playing the country club, I think, and we got into town, went into his office, and the first thing we found out was [for] the lead single of the album they’d chosen “My Baby”, which is a great song but it wasn’t really what we’d have chosen as our first single,” Barnes said, but the kicker was to come: “They’d sent it out to radio wrapped in baby diapers!”
Small, who wrote the 1980 single, drolly said: “It was a great interpretation of what they thought of us.”
“They just didn’t know what the band was about. They didn’t get the band,” he added.
When they then asked Schwartz if he’d be coming to their one and only LA show, he said he had a strange prior engagement. “He said he was going to a DJ’s dog’s birthday party,” Barnes revealed. “I was thinking to myself, ‘This is the guy that’s supposed to be handling our career.'”
You can hear the rest of the story in the episode below, which involves a bag of cocaine and an irate Barnesy.
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Cold Chisel got something out of their US trip at least: their banging 1981 single “You Got Nothing I Want”, which was penned in response to their ridiculous treatment by Schwartz.
“I’m glad to say we’ve sent the song back to him many times to listen to,” Barnes said.
Elsewhere in the episode, Cold Chisel told Reid about Barnes’ emergency open heart surgery in 2023, the friendship formed through decades of performing together, and the devastation they felt when founding member Steve Prestwich suddenly passed away in 2011.
After Cold Chisel announced last month that they would be hitting the road for a special 50th anniversary later this year, the first 16 shows quickly sold out, but luckily the legendary rock band swiftly added six new dates, including first shows in Canberra and the Hunter Valley.
“We were completely blown away by the response,” Barnes said. “The demand for tickets was bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before.”
‘Behind The Rolling Stone Cover’ is sponsored by Shure, affordable, durable, and exceptional-sounding microphones you can rely on. Available to watch and listen on Rolling Stone AU/NZ, and to stream on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms.
