I used to think anyone with abandonment issues was a waste of space. But you do need to get help. Blokes don't talk about those things. It's a taboo in the bloke world.

My childhood in Adelaide was filled with sport. I played soccer from morning until night.

If there was one thing I tried to instil in my children as they were growing up, it was that you get nothing for nothing. You have to work hard to get any rewards. That applies in music or whatever you choose to do. The same goes in relationships; you will only get back what you put in.

I don't want to become a laid-back artist by any stretch of the imagination.

I hate fear politics.

There are new children arriving and trying to reach our lucky country every day, and I hope that we can all work together to help them find their dream, too.

I never take for granted how great Australia is and how well I have been treated here, so thank you for this chance at making a good life.

For a long time, it was all about chart position. 'If my record doesn't come in at No. 1, I'm a failure.' I cared too much about what people thought of me, and that was symptomatic of the trauma from my childhood.

In 1972, I climbed out of my bedroom window and ran away from home with my older sister and her friends to go to the infamous Sunbury rock festival.

If anything, I label myself as sort of Buddhist. My wife Jane is Buddhist.

When I first started, all the reviews of Cold Chisel would say, 'This singer won't have a voice in six months.'

I was probably born an alcoholic.

I'm hyperactive.

I'm one of those people who can't sit still. I like to be doing something. I cook; I've been painting.

I think it's criminal the way poverty is allowed to flourish.

I know that life is full of lessons to be learned, and my children will have to learn their own, but I hope I have broken the cycle of shame and fear that plagued my childhood.

It's one of the beautiful things about Australia that people do get to share this life here, away from trouble.

We're a whole country full of migrants - we need each other, and we should help each other.

Around 2001, I went to rehab in Arizona, and I started to see what was going on and how the past affected me. I started to get a grip on it. But over the next decade, I reverted to the behaviour I used to protect myself when I was young - being mindless, being defeatist and full of bravado.

My mum and dad came from lower-working-class Glasgow, which was tough. Literally, if you see a cat there with a tail, it's a tourist.

Where I grew up, there were times when we didn't have anything to eat.

Everything that happened to me as a child was the perfect breeding ground for a rock n' roll singer. It toughened me up. I was on edge; I was needy. I needed people to like me 'cause it made me feel safe... and that gave me confidence.

You see politicians talking about negative gearing or tax on your second home - most people I knew growing up couldn't afford the rent, let alone buying a house, or a second house.

It's a real bloke thing, not talking to people because it's not manly to get help.

Where I lived in Glasgow looked like Dresden after the war. It was a bomb site. I don't think I'd ever played football on grass until I moved to Australia.

When I came to Australia, it was like heaven.

The Internet has been a godsend and a nightmare for the music industry.

People change naturally when they have children.

Life is good.

Don't take your friends for granted or that everyone is going to be OK.

Kids grow up, and they still need you.

Partners fall in and out of love, but they still need each other.

I have always loved soul singers.

I always wanted to be in a rock band, but I wanted to sing like a soul singer.

I'm happy to be recording and singing live. I have a great family, and a great bunch of people always come and see me sing. What more does a man need?

When you get behind with the tax department, it's very difficult to catch up.

The best thing about this country is the difference in all of us. We all come from different backgrounds. It's a really beautiful thing.

We all do the best with what we have.

I was not an ideal parent, and there were things that I did right and things I did wrong.

Jane and I - somehow we fell into each other's arms, and I adored her! I loved her from the minute I saw her. I don't think I knew what love was.

I wanted my children to never feel like they were unsafe. I wanted them to have everything they needed.

Songs are like sign posts in my life.

My dad was a womaniser, a gambler. He was violent. They thought if they left Scotland, they would leave the problems behind.

I love playing live.

I was actually wilder before I joined Cold Chisel. I was really wild.

Iggy Pop is legendary - he is awesome - and I am a massive Bruce Springsteen fan. His song 'Cautious Man' is my favourite song. It's really poignant, dark, and moody, like myself.

I'm good at maintaining a face. If you've got that bravado, and people expect anything from you, then you'll get away with anything.

In the 1970s, we got a Labor government that put more emphasis on trade with Asia; the Vietnam war ended, and refugees were coming in. We were more part of Asia than America and the rest of the world. There was the proximity, for a start - all these countries and cultures just north of us. It just made sense that that's what we were part of.

I'm not running out of inspiration.

I sat in on some songwriting classes, and it was really bloody hard, a lot of music theory. I'd be sitting there, and they'd be talking all this music theory, and the teacher would say, 'Let's ask our guest Jimmy what he thinks,' and I'd be sitting there thinking, 'Please don't ask me, please don't ask me.'