Jimmy Barnes has been outspoken for most of his life — he has sung about hardship, poverty, abandonment, war, pain and suffering.

Key points: Barnes has ruled out running for politics

Barnes has ruled out running for politics He remains scathing about the closure of the Holden plant in Adelaide's north

He remains scathing about the closure of the Holden plant in Adelaide's north The factory's fate was the inspiration behind one of the tracks from his latest album

But despite wanting to do his bit, the rock legend draws the line at the thought of running for office.

"There is no chance of politics for me. I'm way too blunt, I don't think I'd get voted in," he told ABC Radio Adelaide's Ali Clarke.

"I'd make a good dictator [but] maybe not even then. I don't know if I'd like to live underneath me."

Earlier this week, the Cold Chisel frontman made a well-received appearance on the ABC's Q&A program in Melbourne, where the topics ranged from the environment to Labor's unexpected electoral defeat.

While the studio audience was a little more subdued than the screaming crowds Barnes has become used to, some on social media were urging him to consider a career in Canberra.

"It takes a particular type of person — unfortunately, most politicians are not that particular type of person," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.

"You have to compromise and do deals to get things done, and I tend to like to do things my own way.

"It's easier for anybody to sit back and critique these people from a distance, but getting your hands dirty and getting in there is a different thing."

Barnes attributes his strong resolve to his tough upbringing. ( ABC News: Luke Rosen )

Barnes, who grew up a Labor supporter and remains one, said he respected Prime Minister Scott Morrison's political approach.

"He's trying to do a good job out there," Barnes said.

He acknowledged that politics was a difficult business, but he feared Labor was losing touch with its working-class roots, and was critical of the party's failed election strategy.

"As much as I do support Labor a lot … I think they didn't sell that message well enough," he said on Q&A.

"There was too much talk about protecting people's rights to own multiple houses.

"Most people in the electorate out there that I know are struggling to pay rent.

"It wasn't about, you know, getting franking credits … it was about the real issues of just trying to feed your family, and they weren't being addressed enough."

'That same poverty, that same abuse'

Barnes at a rally for action on climate change in Sydney in March. ( ABC News: Taryn Southcombe )

Last month, Barnes released his 17th studio album.

Its title track, My Criminal Record, was inspired by his upbringing at Elizabeth in Adelaide's underprivileged northern suburbs.

While he now lives on Australia's east coast, he still regularly reflects on his childhood.

"It's not really about my police record at all, it's about the way we were brought up," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.

"[We] lived in pretty extreme poverty with a lot of violence and lot of abuse … and I just thought that was criminal.

"The saddest part is writing this record 60 years later, there are still kids living in the suburbs of Adelaide and Sydney and everywhere else across Australia in that same poverty with that same abuse."

While Barnes has never been an activist in the same way as Peter Garrett and his band Midnight Oil, his protest songs tend to be more darkly personal.

Loading

However, in recent years he has attached his name to political causes he feels strongly about, describing himself as a "closet socialist" who is actually "not very closet".

On Q&A, he went head-to-head with Liberal MP Nicolle Flint over climate change, and about the causes of South Australia's statewide blackout in September 2016.

"This is the impact of losing the reliability of your power supply. There are very real human risks and human costs," Ms Flint told the studio audience.

But Barnes had a different view, blaming climate change rather than the reliability of renewables for the disaster.

"Wasn't there also the fact that this was caused by extreme weather? Does that come into consideration here? What are you talking about? I don't understand this argument at all," he told the Liberal MP.

"Jimmy, to be fair, we have extreme weather around Australia, we have cyclones, we have all sorts of weather events," Ms Flint replied.

"And it's getting worse," Barnes interjected.

Holden, hardship and self-worth

Of all the songs on the new album, it is Shutting Down Our Town — a bittersweet lament for the Holden plant, which was written for Barnes by Troy Cassar-Daley — that deals most directly with the fate of Adelaide's north.

On the day the Elizabeth factory closed its doors in 2017, Barnes performed for the retrenched workers at Adelaide Oval.

Barnes in his heyday at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. ( Supplied: Sydney Entertainment Centre )

Almost two years later, he remained scathing about the decision to close down the plant.

"I've spoken harshly about Elizabeth, about growing up there, and it was a tough place and all that," Barnes said.

"There was a period there when I thought about Elizabeth, I sort of blamed the place as much as I did the circumstances.

"There are people who'd worked in Holdens for 35 years — this was not only just their bread and butter, it was how they measured their own self-worth.

"The fact that they were working in Holdens, which was an iconic Australian company, it was sort of a connection to the country as well.

"Everybody in their wisdom just thought it was good to let that close down and leave these people stranded."

Loading...

For Barnes, however, hardship had a crucial redeeming feature — it made him the man he is today.

Without it, he may never have become one of the nation's most-revered rock musicians.

"I don't think I would have been as hungry, I don't think I would have been as driven," he said.

"That process of going through this change and looking at my life and opening up about my fears and my doubts — I think since I've started doing that, I'm a lot tougher."