Legendary rocker Jimmy Barnes has opened up about the emotional moment he first met his son David Campbell after abandoning him at birth.
The Australian singer, 68, revealed on Richard Wilkins and son Christian’s podcast The Apple & The Tree that he told David he was his father at the age of 10 after spending time with him several times.
‘I used to go to David when he was young, but he didn’t know who I was. It must have been so weird for him,” Jimmy admitted.
“I had been on tour with Cold Chisel and I was hungover and I had a leather jacket on and I showed up.”
Christian then asked David how old he was when he found out the rocker was his real father.
Legendary rocker Jimmy Barnes has opened up about the emotional moment he met his son David Campbell for the first time after abandoning him when he was born
‘I found out when I was ten. It was very overwhelming,” David admitted.
‘I had anxiety and I didn’t know who to talk to. But this was the easier part of it, because my sister was my mother [was hard].’
Jimmy said: “He became unwell and had a migraine and we didn’t know what to do to calm him down. But there’s no real way to mitigate that.”
The singer admitted he felt relived when he told David he was his father and said it didn’t take long for them to develop a relationship.
The Australian singer, 68, revealed on Richard Wilkins and son Christian’s The Apple & The Tree podcast that he told David he was his father at the age of 10 after spending time with him several times
Jimmy also praised his wife Jane, who he met in 1979, for being determined to help them build a close relationship.
During a radio interview on GOLD 104.3 in April 2015, David shared more about his unusual upbringing.
“I grew up in Adelaide and the woman who raised me told me I was adopted. She [later] told me she was actually my grandmother,” he said at the time.
‘I found out when I was ten. It was very overwhelming… I had anxiety and didn’t know who to talk to. This was the easiest part of it, but training my sister was my mother [was hard]David admitted
He added: ‘The woman I thought was my sister for 10 years was actually my mother.’
In a 2008 interview with ABC’s talking headsDavid admitted that he was more shocked when he found out the truth about his mother than when he learned who his father is.
‘It was quite a shock. It was probably a bigger shock when I found out my mother was my sister,” he said, adding that it “opened up a whole Pandora’s box of emotions.”