Legends of Music: INXS

INXS was a great band! INXS are an Australian rock/pop band, who achieved international success with a series of hit recordings through the 1980s and 1990s, including the albums Listen Like Thieves, Kick, X and Welcome to Wherever You Are and the singles "Original Sin", "Need You Tonight", "Devil Inside" and "New Sensation". Their original lead singer, Michael Hutchence, died in 1997 and INXS did not perform publicly for a year. Hutchence was born in Sydney, son of Kelland ("Kell") and Patricia Hutchence, but was subsequently raised in Hong Kong. He began performing at the age of eight in a local toy store commercial. The family eventually returned to Sydney in Hutchence's late teens, and it was there that Hutchence befriended Andrew Farriss at Davidson High School on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Shortly, Michael and Andrew joined with Andrew's brothers Tim and Jon, as well as friends Garry Gary Beers and Kirk Pengilly to form their first band, The Farriss Brothers, which would ultimately become INXS. The INXS album, Elegantly Wasted, was released in April 1997. Hutchence and INXS went on a world tour. The final leg of the tour was to be in Australia in November and December. However, on the morning of 22 November 1997, Hutchence, aged 37, was found dead in his room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Double Bay, Sydney. A belt found at the scene suggested that he had died by hanging. The New South Wales coroner determined that Hutchence's death was the result of suicide, but analysis of the witness statements in the coroner's report, the lack of a suicide note and other anecdotal evidence, such as the fact that Hutchence was found nude, has led some—including Hutchence's brother and other close relatives—to suggest that the death may have resulted from autoerotic asphyxiation. Michael Hutchence's coffin was carried out of St. Andrew's Cathedral by members of the band and his younger brother Rhett. "Never Tear Us Apart" was played in the background.