next item to fall under the "who saw this one coming?!?"
For anyone interested, Australian hard rock singer Jimmy Barnes (originally the front-man for Cold Chisel, then later with a successful solo career) has been in the US recently writing for a new solo album. The back story to all of this starts in the mid 80s when Barnes attempted to break into the lucrative American market. The Cain-written "Working Class Man" became his signature song, and both Cain and Schon featured heavily on Barnes' subsequent Freight Train Heart album. For whatever reason, neither album failed to make an impact in the US, and with the exception of a re-recording of "Simply the Best" with Tina Turner several years later, Barnes went back home and basically stayed away from the American rock scene from that point forward. Despite the success of the FTH album in Australia, Barnes was rather vocal about his dislike of the co-writing, and the vocal production of Cain (enough so that the vocals were re-recorded when he went back to Australia before the release date).
To the surprise of many, in addition to co-writing with other people across the US, Barnes stopped in the San Francisco area to write with Cain again for a new solo album, scheduled for release later this year. For anyone interested, there is a pic of Cain and Barnes if you go to Barnes' official webpage, www.jimmybarnes.com, then news, then click under new studio album (no, there isn't a direct link).
Weird stuff...