1977-2012Michael HutchenceVocals1977-1997
Jon FarrissDrums
Tim FarrissBass
Andrew FarrissGuitar
Garry BeersGuitar, keyboards
Kirk PengillySaxophone
J.D. FortuneVocals2005-2009
The Australian pub rock group INXS first got together in 1977 as The Farriss Brothers. They changed their name to INXS in 1980 and signed a record deal in Australia. In 1983, they got an American record contract. The group became internationally famous by the start of the '90s.
Hutchence gained a reputation as a ladies man with a flamboyant, arrogant wild streak. He dated Kylie Minogue, Michelle Bennett, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates.
Their first tour in America was in 1983 as a support act for Adam And The Ants. Later in the year, they opened for The Go-Go's, and there was intermingling. "Six boys, five girls... you can work it out," their manager said.
Early on, Andrew Farriss wrote a lot of the lyrics, but as Michael Hutchence developed as a frontman, he took over that role completely. "In the early years he really struggled with his lyrics," Farriss said in a
Songfacts interview. "Then later on, Michael became more emotional and more passionate about his lyrics. It was not so much, 'Oh, I have to write these lyrics to write a song.' It was more like, 'I really, really, really want to say something.'"
Hutchence died on November 22, 1997 in suite 524 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Sydney, where he was found hanged by his own belt. It was ruled a suicide, but rumored that Hutchence was practicing autoerotic asphyxiation, which involves cutting off oxygen for sexual pleasure. The coroner found no evidence to support this, but did determine that he was in a depressed state at the time.
After losing Hutchence, INXS continued with various guest singers through the end of the 1990s, and in 2005, they found their new lead singer through their reality show
Rock Star: INXS, which promised the gig to the winner. J.D. Fortune got the prize and became their permanent singer.
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Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
In 2009, Fortune told the Canadian version of Entertainment Tonight that the band let him go after completing their world tour, and that he was broke and homeless. He said that he developed a cocaine addiction while with the band.
The band would enjoy a little pre-show ping-pong, as their 1993 tour rider reveals - they asked for a table set up before each show.
During their November 11, 2012 performance as support act to Matchbox Twenty at Perth Arena, Australia, INXS announced that it would be their last gig. Kirk Pengilly told the crowd that it was appropriate to finish where they had started 35 years earlier.
Tim Farriss caught his left hand while operating a winch on his boat in Sydney in January 2015, severing his ring finger. He underwent two extensive operations to reattach his digit but was left with permanent hand damage. As a consequence, it is uncertain if he will ever be able to play the guitar properly again.
Back in the days when they were known as The Farriss Brothers, the band regularly supported Midnight Oil and other local bands. Midnight Oil's manager, Gary Morris, suggested they change their name to INXS, inspired by Australian jam makers IX, and the English new wave band XTC, who'd recently toured Australia.
INXS released their debut single, "Simple Simon," in May 1980. The title of the B-side, "We Are the Vegetables," refers to an early band name, the Vegetables, which they used when performing in Perth in 1978.
Long before he became an international rock idol, Michael Hutchence lived in a tiny six-flight walk-up in Hong Kong. He'd grown up in Hong Kong until age 12 and moved back as an adult partly to reconnect with his father, who worked in China.
Before INXS took off, Hutchence had exactly one "proper job": he worked as a spot welder in a factory for a month to earn enough money to buy equipment for the band. He said it was good to know what real work felt like before rock stardom became his grind.
