INXS’ Andrew Farriss Says Michael Hutchence Would Be ‘Honored’ With Rock Hall Nomination

There’s no small irony that INXS ‘ Andrew Farriss is in Ohio — home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland — to visit his wife’s family on the day his band received its first nomination for the shrine. “On the first tour we did in 1983 we ran off the road, funnily enough, in Akron,” Farriss tells Billboard via Zoom.

“So we nearly died on a tour bus in Ohio, now we’re nominated and I’m talking to you from Ohio. It’s all happening here for some reason …” Nevertheless, he’s feeling nothing but joy over the Rock Hall nomination, coming 21 years after the Australian group was initially eligible. “I think everybody in the band is thrilled and excited to be nominated, and obviously we’re very much honored to have something like that,” Farriss says.

“It’s something, I guess, that goes into the history books, whatever they are. I never started writing songs and playing music to be in a hall of fame; that’s not why I started doing it — but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. I’m a little philosophical about all that; I think when something’s meant to happen, it’s going to happen in your life, whether you realize it or not.