Hutchence, Michael (1960-1997), an Australian rock musician and songwriter, was the lead singer of the group INXS (pronounced “in excess”), a six-member band that he helped form in 1977.
Michael Kelland Hutchence was born on Jan. 22, 1960, in Sydney. In 1964, his parents took him to Hong Kong, then a Crown colony of the United Kingdom, where the family lived for eight years, returning to Sydney in 1972. Five years later, he teamed up with the Australian musicians Andrew Farriss (guitar and keyboards), Jon Farriss (drums), Tim Farriss (guitar), Kirk Pengilly (guitar and saxophone), and Garry Beers (bass) to form the Farriss Brothers. The band soon changed its name to INXS. After 18 months of writing and performing in Perth, Western Australia, the band returned to Sydney in 1979. It released its first single, “Simple Simon”/”We are the Vegetables,” in 1980, but achieved little success until its third album, Shabooh Shoobah (1982). By 1985, INXS was winning an international following with the album Kick (1987), from which came such hits as “Devil Inside,” “Mystify,” and “Need You Tonight.”
Hutchence also appeared in the films Dogs in Space (1986) and Frankenstein Unbound (1991). On Nov. 22, 1997, Hutchence committed suicide in a Sydney hotel room. INXS continued to tour and record with a number of guest lead vocalists until the 2010’s. In 2012, the group announced that it would no longer tour.
