{"id":425085,"date":"2026-01-20T08:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425085\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T08:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:43:11","slug":"midnight-oil-founder-and-drummer-rob-hirst-dies-aged-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425085\/","title":{"rendered":"Midnight Oil founder and drummer Rob Hirst dies aged 70"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died aged 70.<\/p>\n

Hirst “died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones”, according to a statement posted on Midnight Oil’s social media.<\/p>\n

“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain \u2014 ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness,'” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“The family asks that anyone wanting to honour Rob donate to Pankind, Pancreatic Cancer Australia or Support Act.”<\/p>\n

Hirst was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2023.<\/p>\n

The band’s statement, shared via its management to the ABC, said: “We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob. For now there are no words but there will always be songs.”<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

The bandmates of Rob Hirst (second from left) paid tribute to him via a social media statement. (AAP: Dean Lewins)<\/p>\n

As well as the band’s drummer, Hirst was a songwriter on many Midnight Oil hits.<\/p>\n

He has writing credits on songs including Beds Are Burning, Blue Sky Mine and Read About It.<\/p>\n

A founding member of Midnight Oil, Hirst was born in Camden in Sydney’s south-west.<\/p>\n

Australian music legend Jimmy Barnes paid tribute to Hirst in a social media post, saying he had a “massive impact” on Australian culture.<\/p>\n

“RIP, dear Rob. You are irreplaceable, one of a kind, and myself, my family, and all the rest of this great country will miss you so much,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

Australian band Cold Chisel passed on its condolences to the family and Midnight Oil bandmates.<\/p>\n

“Rob was an incredible drummer and songwriter \u2014 and a good friend to all of us in Cold Chisel. Vale Rob,” it said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rob Hirst was one the founding members of Midnight Oil. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Life-changing cancer diagnosis<\/p>\n

In one of his last interviews in November, Hirst talked about his health journey with pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

“The diagnosis happened about six months after Midnight Oil finally stopped playing, which was the 3rd of October 2022 at the Hordern Pavilion,” he told ABC Radio Sydney Mornings presenter Hamish Macdonald.<\/p>\n

“Everything was going along and looking forward to retirement, and then bang, it hits you.”<\/p>\n

He explained the treatments he underwent.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had every test, I’ve had chemo relentlessly, I’ve had radiotherapy, I had sepsis earlier this year, but I’m still here, as the old man used to say,” Hirst said.<\/p>\n

“I feel like my body is an instrument that’s been taken to the tip surrounded by bin chickens.<\/p>\n

“You realise that all you’re doing is carting around this body.”<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

In his final years, Hirst had reflected on the toll of cancer treatment. (ABC Conversations: Michelle Ransom-Hughes)<\/p>\n

Hirst said since he became ill, he had been surrounded by care and support.<\/p>\n

“One of the silver linings I think with battles people face \u2026 is that maybe you don’t really appreciate the love, friendship, attention, care that comes back at you when something serious happens to you,” he told Macdonald.<\/p>\n

“That’s become manifest over the last couple of years, and it has brought tears to my eyes many times.<\/p>\n

“Essentially, I believe in the goodness of people and their hearts and their motivations, and it’s written in the song First Do No Harm.”<\/p>\n

Change in approach to music<\/p>\n

Despite the illness, Hirst continued to make music, even after his 1979 Ludwig drum kit, used on Midnight Oil’s second album and onwards, was auctioned off, with $90,000 going to charity.<\/p>\n

“I can’t thrash rock ‘n’ roll drums anymore,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s a big rock ‘n’ roll kit, and you need a lot of breath power to play a drum kit like that.”<\/p>\n

It now sits in a museum in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

He said at the time that he was still doing the odd gig, but not the “big rock n’ roll gigs anymore”.<\/p>\n

“I’m still playing with Backsliders [a three-piece blues band Hirst was a part of], but more kind of brushes on a snare drum and percussion and also sort of strumming along on my old Gibson acoustic guitar and singing a few harmonies,” Hirst said.<\/p>\n

“The trouble is now my voice has dropped a couple of octaves with this illness and so I’m exploring more of Leonard Cohen area now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died aged 70. Hirst “died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones”, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,126941,223308,223307],"class_list":["post-425085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-midnight-oil","tag-midnight-oil-drummer","tag-rob-hirst-dead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}