UPDATE 03/08/16 7.48PM: Bernard Fanning has appeared on Ten’s The Project to confirm that he was not, in fact, the one responsible for sending Barnesy the cantankerous text response and threatening to set the police on him. He explained that the number that Barnesie had texted was one of his old ones, and joked that it now appears to belong to a “psychopath”.
Beef = busted.
ORIGINAL STORY: A Twitter ‘beef’ of comedic proportions has erupted between Aussie singer-songwriters Jimmy Barnes and Bernard Fanning, after Barnsie reportedly tried to contact the former Powderfinger frontman via text message, only to receive a barrage of threats.
Posting to social media today, Barnes showed fans a text message which he supposedly tried to send to Fanning in order to wish the muso “all the best” with his new album Civil Dusk, which is set for release this Friday.
While it seems like Barnsey innocently contacted the number he had saved under “Bernard fanning”, the response he received was less than polite:
Tried to text my good mate @bernardfanning to wish him all the best for his new album, and got this bloke instead. pic.twitter.com/jhImVrwAU6
— Jimmy Barnes (@JimmyBarnes) August 3, 2016
Fanning has since retweeted Barnsey’s post about the supposed text message mix-up, and hasn’t owned up to being responsible for what would be a pretty terrible trolling attempt, if he was the one behind it.
It also sounds like Barnsey has texted “Bernard fanning” before, which suggests the number might now belong to someone else, and while some Barnsey fans would love a random text from the man himself, the number in question is probably receiving a whole bunch of messages like “When are Powderfinger reuniting?” and “BRINGG POWDERFINGERRR back plzz Bernie!!!”
Twitter beefs and telephone mix-ups aside, Fanning is touring behind Civil Dusk this October and November, while Barnsey will be embarking on his Soul Searchin’ national tour later this month.
Catch Barnsey’s Facebook post about the telephone mix-up, below.
Watch: Jimmy Barnes – Mustang Sally
