{"id":2039267,"date":"2026-07-12T06:08:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2039267"},"modified":"2026-07-12T06:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:08:54","slug":"jimmy-barnes-icehouse-and-more-pay-tribute-to-cold-chisel-saxophonist-andy-bickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2039267","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Barnes, ICEHOUSE and More Pay Tribute to Cold Chisel Saxophonist Andy Bickers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAndy Bickers, the New Zealand-born saxophonist whose playing became a defining element of Cold Chisel\u2019s live sound across more than three decades, has died following a battle with cancer. He was 56.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tCold Chisel\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tCold Chisel confirmed his death on Friday morning in a statement posted to social media. \u201cOur much-loved sax player of more than 30 years, Andy Bickers, passed away this morning after a hard-fought battle with cancer,\u201d the Instagram\u00a0post\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cAndy was our brother: an incredible musician and a great person to be out on the road or out on the town with. His valuable contribution onstage to songs like\u00a0\u2018Rising Sun\u2019, \u2018Saturday Night\u2019\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018My Baby\u2019\u00a0will be sorely missed.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur hearts break for his wife Lisa and his son Rudy,\u201d the band added.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrontman Jimmy Barnes \u2014 whose touring band gave Bickers his entry point into the upper tier of Australian rock \u2014 paid tribute separately. \u201cAndy also toured many times with me, playing soul and rock shows,\u201d Barnes\u00a0wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were friends not only because he was a great player, but he was funny, intelligent, and most importantly, he was a good man.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLots of love to Lisa and Rudy. You will be sadly missed, Andy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n\tICEHOUSE\u2019s Iva Davies also paid tribute to Bickers, reflecting on having recently performed with him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am saddened and very sorry to hear the news about the loss of Andy Bickers,\u201d Davies wrote in a message shared on ICEHOUSE\u2019s social media. \u201cWe saw and performed with him only a few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAndy was a consummate musician as attested by the great array of people he performed and collaborated with along with the many he mentored and inspired,\u201d Davies continued. \u201cHe will be truly missed by all of us within the ICEHOUSE team and by the Australian music community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur thoughts are with his family,\u201d Davies added.<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn in Wellington, Bickers spent the 1980s working the local rock scene before relocating to Australia, first to Melbourne and then Sydney, where his tenor and baritone playing quickly established him as one of the country\u2019s most reliable session and touring musicians. His breakthrough came via Barnes\u2019 touring band, and by the early 2000s he had become a fixture in Cold Chisel\u2019s live lineup.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis r\u00e9sum\u00e9 extended well beyond Chisel. Bickers toured with Midnight Oil, Silverchair, the Eagles, Don Henley and Diesel, and recorded or performed with You Am I, the Presets, Hoodoo Gurus, Tony Hadley, and Vika and Linda.<\/p>\n

\n\tMidnight Oil also paid tribute on social media, noting that one of his final performances was leading the brass section during a tribute to Rob Hirst at the 2026 APRA Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tRichard Clapton also remembered the musician, writing, \u201cIt is with heavy heart that I have to let you know that our beloved sax player Andy Bickers passed away yesterday. I have played The State Theatre 16 times and Andy was with us for virtually every one of those concerts, and made\u00a0\u2018Wintertime in Amsterdam\u2019\u00a0such a special moment in the shows history. The song is not going to be quite the same this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFormed in Adelaide in 1973, Cold Chisel remain one of the most commercially significant bands in Australian history, with a catalog that has produced multiple No. 1 albums on the ARIA Albums Chart. Bickers\u2019 saxophone was central to the live renditions of some of the band\u2019s most enduring songs, and his work across thousands of concerts and recording sessions made him one of the most quietly ubiquitous figures in Australian rock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/rock\/andy-bickers-cold-chisel-saxophonist-dies-1236292439\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1720160334-e1783835441944.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Andy Bickers, the New Zealand-born saxophonist whose playing became a defining element of Cold Chisel\u2019s live sound across more than three decades, has died following a battle with cancer. He was 56. Explore Cold Chisel See latest videos, charts and news Cold Chisel confirmed his death on Friday morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2039267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2039267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2039267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2039267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2039267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}