In this case, the person in question – Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes – did not know himself until recently.

When Jimmy Barnes sang a few versus in Yiddish before 1700 Jews this week, the rock star had some unexpected news for his audience at the charity event. He, too, was Jewish.

Through the rock of ages, many stars have had Jewish roots: Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, the Ramones, Kiss and the Beastie Boys. Now we can add Barnsey, the Scottish immigrant kid who was raised a Protestant and played in the Salvation Army band before he became Australia’s howling Working Class Man.

Barnes only made his discovery hours before he told Sydney’s Central Synagogue on Thursday night: ”I rang my mother this afternoon, before the rehearsal. And I said, ‘Mum, I remember when I was about 18, you gave me a Star of David. Why?’ And she said, ‘Oh, my mother gave that to me and her mother gave it to her and I thought I’d give it to you.’ And I said, ‘OK, was your mother Jewish by any chance? And she said, ‘Yes, her name was Esther.’ So, if I’m to get this right, my great-grandmother was Jewish, my grandmother was Jewish, my mother was Jewish, so I must be Jewish.”

The audience response was rapturous. Barnes added: ”The only problem with that – it might be a painful process.”

Well, not quite. Barnes explained to the Herald yesterday: ”It is passed down through the mother so, yes, technically, I am Jewish.” But he added: ”Basically, I’m a Buddhist.”

He had meditated in Thailand, attended black gospel in the US, studied Hinduism in India and had Muslim friends in France.

”I like people of faith, and I believe the more people who have spirituality, the better the world will be. It’s about peace and tolerance.”

He thought little about that Star of David as a teenager. His mother was not a practising Jew. In 2003

the Rabbi Mendel Kastel, then at the Great Synagogue, approached Barnes to perform Hava Nagila. ”I wanted something spectacular to get the community in. Jimmy thought it was a joke at first. But then, graciously, he did it.”

Rabbi Kastel now runs Jewish House, a crisis centre at Bondi that deals with homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction and families in need. Barnes has become a supporter, and he and his son, David Campbell, will perform a fundraiser for the centre on December 1 at the Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney.

About a month ago, the rabbi and Barnes were sharing a Kosher meal in Bondi. At the next table, Central Synagogue’s Cantor Shimon Farkas was dining with the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, and he invited Barnes to sing at Thursday night’s concert.

And so Barnes was there to sing My Yiddishe Momme. But not before calling his mother that day. He shared his news before treating his audience to a solo, What a Wonderful World.

Update: For those not familiar with Jimmy (the non-Aussies amongst you – he’s a legend Down Under), here is his one of his most famous songs, and the inspiration behind the post’s title.

It’s Elvis all over again (hat tip: Elder of Zion).

The sad thing is, it almost makes perfect sense.

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Update: It got worse.

Sex, drugs and rock’n'roll are no problem. But as Billy Bob Thornton has just discovered, no musician – however famous – can get away with coming to Canada and suggesting that the locals might be ever-so-slightly boring.

The Hollywood actor, who is trying to rebrand himself as a hillbilly singer, has cancelled a tour of Quebec and Ontario after saying in a radio interview that Canadian fans were like “mashed potatoes with no gravy”.

During a remarkably cantankerous audience with CBC, the national radio network, Thornton complained that local audiences were “very reserved” and consistently failed to behave in a suitably uproarious fashion when his band takes to the stage.

“It doesn’t matter what you say to them,” he complained. “It’s mashed potatoes with no gravy … We tend to play places where people throw things at each other. And here, they just sit there.”

The comments sparked public outrage when they were aired on Wednesday and Thornton and his band, the Boxmasters, were greeted with a chorus of boos when they arrived onstage in Toronto as the support act for Willie Nelson the following night. The Toronto Star reported that large sections of the audience shouted “here comes the gravy!” while unconfirmed reports suggested that several irate punters decided to take Thornton at his word and throw plastic cups at him.

On Friday, a large crowd in Montreal was gearing up for a similar performance when they were suddenly informed that the Boxmasters had cancelled their remaining Canadian dates. The news was greeted with wild applause.

A post on Nelson’s website initially said that “no reasons have been announced” for the withdrawal. But yesterday, Thornton’s publicist blamed flu, which he said had suddenly struck down the group’s guitarist and several crew members. The band will resume scheduled performances on 14 April, in the safety of their native USA.

It will take some time for Thornton to regain the affections of the Canadian people. The actor, who was once married to Angelina Jolie, launched his tirade against the country after becoming highly upset at the way his “electric hillbilly” band was introduced on CBC’s Q programme.

In the opening segment of the show, host Jian Ghomeshi had gently informed listeners that, in addition to being the Boxmasters’ lead singer and drummer, Thornton was an “Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director”.

That apparently contradicted Thornton’s wishes that his career outside of music never be mentioned during interviews he conducts with the band. In the remainder of the interview, he greeted most questions with either complete silence, or non sequiturs.

At one section of the appearance, Thornton complained that he had been forbidden from smoking in the radio station’s studios – a factor which some blamed for his apparent belligerence.

“I wasn’t fond of the whole image back in the day, the baggy pants, the shaved eyebrow and the hairdo, but I’ve had therapy since.”

- Rob Van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice

Easy for him to say. I’m still in therapy over the fact I own one of his albums.

Now I read that Islam is also getting a raw deal.

Snoop Dogg has revealed he has joined the Nation of Islam after appearing at the religious group’s annual Saviours’ Day event in Chicago.

The rapper, who described himself as the “leader of the hip-hop community”, told followers he would share what he learned with other musicians.

He told reporters that he joined the group because he was “doing what’s right and representing what’s right”.

It preaches self-reliance for black people within an Islamic framework.

At Sunday’s event, the rapper sat on stage while Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan gave a speech.

I live how I’m supposed to live as far as doing what’s right and representing what’s right – that’s why I was here today

He said afterwards that listening to the speech from Mr Farrakhan was “about a mirror – it’s about looking at yourself”.

And Snoop could well do with paying a bit more attention to what he sees in the mirror.

He added: “We’re doing a lot of wrongs among ourselves that need correcting.”

When asked if he had joined the movement he said: “I’m already in the Nation, that’s why I’m here.

“I’m an advocate for peace, I’ve been in the peace movement ever since I’ve been making music.

“My whole thing is not about really trying to push my thing on you.

Actually, from the music videos of Snoop Dogg I have seen, he seems all about pushing “his thing” on you.

"You sure you ain't one of us?"

Phoebe Snow is so often mistaken for African-American, she’s decided to get to the bottom of her ethnic roots. “I’m going to take a DNA test,” Snow, a Jew whose real name is Phoebe Ann Laub, told Page Six. Her decision comes after New Jersey’s (201) magazine feted the singer as one of Bergen County’s “black music-industry greats” along with Stevie Wonder, George Benson, Ben E. King, the Isley Brothers and Diddy. “I was peeing in my pants laughing. I was like, this is fantastic, to be in such great company,” said Snow, who had a smash hit with “Poetry Man” in 1974. “Believe me, people have been asking me about this since I started in the recording industry. My mom was the whitest, alabaster-skinned person you can imagine, but who knows what went on four generations ago? So this mitochondrial DNA test should settle it.” Oprah took the test and discovered she was linked to South Africa’s Zulu tribe.

Well, thanks to MOAD (Mum of Aussie Dave), I present to you Ray of Hope.

What’s the verdict? Should Shimon quit his day job? And if you answered yes, should he quit it to become a songwriter?