Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie has a funny story about Bob Dylan.
In his book ‘The Silver River’, Jim has a bit about sharing a joint once with Bob Dylan. Jim tells Noise11.com, “There is a bit of a story about Bob Dylan in there where we played with him to about 60000 people and we had a toke on his pot, a joint, which is pretty interesting. It was pretty good pot”.
Jim’s book The Silver River was published in 2024 by HarperCollins.
“I didn’t want to do a normal rock book,” Jim says. “You know, the back of the limo, the drudgery of hotels or the problem with record labels. There’s a little bit about that in there but its really about life itself. This is like an 80,000 world song really”.
The book is also more focused on the lows of real life and not so much the highs of being in one of Australia’s most successful bands of all time. “I thought failure was more interesting to talk about. That the more Irish line, Samual Beckett. “Try again, fail again, fail better”. That expression that he’s got. Rather than go “hey we rocked”, because people in bands are people, they go through all sorts of things and its quite difficult for some. Some can’t deal with the pressures of it”.
Midnight Oil had two incredible run. “We went for a very long time the first time and then we came back again in 2017 for The Great Circle tour. But that little period when Peter left and went into politics. That 15 year period, I really had to balance everything and find out who the hell I was”.
The best advice Jim got was from Tim Finn. “Tim Finn said ‘the only way you are ever going to grow up is when the band breaks up. That happened to me when I was about 45. As a 45-year old I had to become an adult. That’s not to say I wasn’t an adult but you have that security around you.
“At that Wollongong gig there was hardly anyone there. You are starting again from scratch. Its kind of what I am doing now in a way. I am enjoying the process. Its honest. You can’t always be in that cocoon. Sometimes you need to break out and if the cocoon isn’t there you have no choice.”
‘The Silver River’ is out now.
Jim’s new album ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Fine’ will be released on 6 December, 2024. Check out the title track with Leah Flanagan.
The movie ‘Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line’ is now streaming in Australia on ABC iView.
Jim Moginie will tour ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Fine’ in December.
Dates are:
Fri 6 Dec – Smith’s Alternative, Canberra
Sun 8 Dec – Brunswick Ballroom,Melbourne
Thur 12 Dec – Lazybones, Sydney
Fri 13 Dec – Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong
Sun 15 Dec – Byron Bay Theatre, Byron Bay
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YOUTUBE and updated regularly. See things first SUBSCRIBE here: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE
