A former INXS band member has confirmed that after the death of lead singer Michael Hutchence, they wanted to bring in a female singer in his stead.
Whilst no one could truly replace the iconic rocker, Australia is not short of talented vocalists.
Despite this, fans of the all male band were left dumbfounded by the possibility that INXS may have had a very different sound if they followed through with their plans.
The shock revelation came to public attention for the first time when INXS drummer Jon Farriss opened up on the LiSTNR program Behind The Hits.
The podcast also featured interviews with additional former INXS members Andrew Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Jon Stevens (who filled Hutchence’s role as lead vocalist between 2000 and 2003), plus one time members Jimmy Barnes and Suze DeMarchi.
”Nothing compares, to you”.
(IMAGE: Getty)Frontwoman of Australian rock contemporaries Baby Animals, DeMarchi reiterated the claims of Farriss, confirming the decades long rumours that after Stevens left the band in 2003, a formal invitation was made, offering her a permanent position behind as lead singer of INXS.
Previously DeMarchi had performed with the band for a one off gig in December 2000.
”There was a formal offer from their manager,” DeMarchi explained.
”They didn’t say, ‘You’re going to make this, we’ll do this, some of that…it hadn’t got[ten] to that point, but [there were] conversations with their manager at the time, David Edwards, and Andrew and I had spoken quite a bit about it…
”Just before they had done that show, I was really seriously thinking about doing it. I was just about to go, ‘Yeah, maybe we could try this,’ and then they said, ‘Well, we want to do this show.’ So that’s how it went down.”
It wasn’t easy to replace Michael following his death in 1997.
(IMAGE: Getty)The show DeMarchi is referring to is Rock Star: INXS, a reality television program which saw talented musicians from across the country compete for the chance to fill Hutchence’s big shoes and become lead singer of the award winning band.
Ultimately, the show led to the recruitment of JD Fortune, a former nobody who lived in his car before being hired for the gig. Fortune sang with the band from then until 2011, and released two albums, ‘Switch‘ (2005) and ‘Original Sin‘ (2010).
Speaking on the decision to sideline DeMarchi, Farriss said the decision was about ”going global”, and the only way to achieve their former level of stardom was to take ”huge risks”.
”We were trying to sort of get out of the local pub, we wanted to go global. We wanted to get out of there. And we wanted to go, ‘OK, there’s got to be someone out of eight billion people, who we haven’t met before – some interesting, exotic something from somewhere – that would pop up and [make you] go, ‘Wow!”
WATCH NOW: The official trailer for Michael Hutchence, Mystify. Article continues after video.
Despite this however, Farriss also admitted that the show was set up with a female winner, and that even without DeMarchi in front of the mic, the band intended to still follow through with its decision to hire a female singer.
”We all wanted [the winner] to be a girl,” he said.
”We loaded it with girls. There were 15 contestants – it was eight girls and seven guys.
”The whole [show] was all set up perfectly for it, but you know, she wasn’t there. That was the real, honest truth of it.
”But I still reckon a girl singer for INXS would be awesome – I still believe that. I honestly do. It just isn’t what God wanted at that time.”
Suze DeMarchi alongside her bandmates in Baby Animals.
(IMAGE: Instagram)Speaking on her potential future with INXS, DeMarchi admitted that she was ultimately glad she wasn’t hired for the band.
”The idea of getting a girl, I thought, was a good idea because Michael is very difficult to…You can’t replace Michael. Nobody can replace him, so if a girl did it, they could not get immediate comparisons, maybe”.
It’s heard to imagine INXS with imagining Michael Hutchence.
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