Jimmy Barnes at the DIVA awards launch
Always ready to lend his support to the GLBT community, Jimmy Barnes talks DIVA's and Dance Parties with Time Out's Andrew Georgiou
AG: I know that you've supported the general
community for some time now, most notably with your performance at
Mardi Gras where you silenced skeptics with your rendition of You Make
Me Feel [Might Real]
JB: Yeah it was fantastic, it was great.
AG: How did that come about originally?
JB:
I had friends who had been involved in the Mardi Gras committee over
the years and I think they just put my name forward and I obviously
have a lot of friends in the gay community, I've been going to clubs
and seeing shows and Mardi Gras was then and probably is still now one
of the best parties in the world, and particularly at that time I think
you know it has really opened up and I just thought I would really love
to be involved.
AG: You've been to the divas before, what have been your highlights and what do you think stood out most to you?
JB:
I just think the amount of effort that people put in to making
themselves not only glamorous, some outrageous, some ridiculous, but
it's the amount of effort that goes into it you know, the one thing
about the drag community and about the gay community is the community
spirit that they put into it, you know when they have an event, they
all turn up and support each other, laugh at each other, laugh with
each other, and I just love that and the straight community could learn
a lot from that, there really is a great community spirit in the gay
community and I love that.
AG: You've been described as one of
the few artists who crosses over so beautifully from the mainstream
into the niche. Is that just something that comes quite easily to you,
I mean obviously you've got a history with a lot of gay community
members.
JB: I mean yeah I just love people and I judge people
on their own appearance not on if they're gay, straight or indifferent
and I think that helps. and the fact that I came out, and to come to
clubs in the old days and the gay community on mass really took to me,
and it made me feel really warm and really part of it. I mean some of
my best friends, and I mean my dearest friends, my friends who I would
trust with my life are apart of this community so from my side it comes
from me respecting the gay community and from theirs I'm sure they just
respect what I do as an artist and how I treat them, I treat people at
equals.