It’s a lucky No. 13 for Jimmy Barnes, as the legendary rocker debuts atop the Australian albums chart with Flesh And Blood (Bloodlines/Universal).
“I don’t take any of this for granted,” he said as his historic chart feat was announced late Friday, local time.
The former Cold Chisel frontman’s record-setting LP is the followup to My Criminal Record, which reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in June 2019 and gave him the all-time mark for most leaders, outpacing Madonna and U2.
Also, the “Working Class Man” singer becomes the first Australian solo act to have a No. 1 album in every decade since the 1980s.
Barnes, a hero in these parts who was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame with Cold Chisel in 1993 and again as a solo artist in 2005, dedicated the album to his good friend Michael Gudinski, who passed away March 2 at the age of 68.
Indeed, Barnes debuted the title track at Gudinski’s state memorial in Melbourne earlier in the year.
In other chart news, Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” (Atlantic/Warner) enters a second week atop the ARIA Singles Chart, while Italian rock outfit Maneskin have a new chart peak with their cover of “Beggin” (RCA/Sony), up 6-3. The 2021 Eurovision Song Contest champs’ other recent chart entry “I Wanna Be Your Slave” also hits a new high, up 21-15.
