[4] The following year he formed Hot Ice with Roger Harris – guitar, David Michel – drums, Wayne Sanderson – Bass and Paul Wiles – keyboards.

In 1973 he started an Electronics course at Kilkenny Technical College but "lasted one term there ... totally daydreaming the whole time", he left and worked in various factory jobs.

[12][13][14] Within months the line-up included Steve Prestwich on drums and Jimmy Barnes on lead vocals, and they were renamed, Cold Chisel.

[13][14][15] After periods spent in Adelaide, Armidale and Melbourne, Cold Chisel eventually settled in Sydney in mid-1977 and signed a recording contract with WEA late that year.

Their fifth studio album, Twentieth Century, was issued in April 1984 with two tracks, "Saturday Night" and "Janelle", featuring Moss on lead vocals.

[13][14] During Cold Chisel's first phase, Moss gained status as a songwriter, contributing "Never Before"[20] for East (June 1980), the track was the first one aired by national radio station Triple J when it switched from AM to FM in 1980.

[21] He also worked as a session musician for other artists,[11] including playing a guitar solo on the track "Skin" from the album Icehouse (October 1980) by Sydney new wave band Flowers and an appearance on Richard Clapton's The Great Escape (March 1982),[11] which also featured Barnes.

After Cold Chisel disbanded, Ian Moss took a break from the music industry before launching his solo career in October 1986.

[23] Matchbook, followed in August, which reached number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, it remained at the peak spot for three weeks[17][24] and sold more than 200,000 copies.

[26] Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, found the album displayed Moss's "exemplary, controlled guitar technique, but also highlighted his soulful voice ... [he] handled all lead vocals with considerable style and authority".

[17] In October 1991 Moss released his second album, Worlds Away, which featured "songs largely co-written with Don Walker in the soul/R&B vein".

Subsequently, he made guest appearances on albums by The Black Sorrows' Better Times (1992) on a track called "Ain't Love the Strangest Thing", Richard Clapton's Distant Thunder (1993), on Barnes' solo album, Heat (1993),[11] the first time he had worked with Barnes in ten years.

In June 1994 he provided lead guitar on the title track of Don Walker's solo album, We're All Gunna Die (1995).

[17] McFarlane declared it was "his best-ever album ... [by] a down'n'dirty blues-rock outfit ... with gritty, hard-edged tracks ... [and] finely honed guitar work".

[11][17] Those live tracks had been recorded during 1996 to 1997 on his national tour supporting Petrolhead, with Rilen replaced by Paul Wheeler on bass guitar mid-tour.

[11][35] it was an acoustic album and included material from his time with Cold Chisel, his solo releases and cover versions of Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks.

[36] To support the release Moss undertook an extensive joint tour of Australia co-headlining with Jon Stevens (ex-Noiseworks, INXS).

[37] It contained acoustic cover versions of Cold Chisel tracks and material written by Moss and/or his former band mates Walker, Prestwich and Small.

[24] From February to April 2008 Moss appeared on the third series of Australian TV celebrity singing contest, It Takes Two, where he was partnered by actress, Virginia Gay – they finished in the top three.

It was produced by Danny Korthmar,[43] and featured Steve Jordan, Neil Jason, Leon Pendarvis and Hugh McCracken.

[24] Amazon.com editorial reviewer declared that Moss provides an "unforgettable sound – not only as a telling soloist on guitar but especially with his silken voice, ringing with clarity and resonating with pure soul".

[50] Recording of Cold Chisel's album, No Plans, was disrupted when Steven Prestwich was diagnosed with a brain tumour and died on 16 January 2011, aged 56.

[59] Ian Moss was in a de facto relationship with Australian actress Megan Williams[60] for eleven years until they split up in the 1990s.