November 22 2015 marks the 18th anniversary of the death of Michael Hutchence.
Hutchence was 37 years old when he was found dead in Sydney. Had he lived he would have been 54 today.
Michael Hutchence left an incredible musical legacy with 10 INXS albums and the innovative side-project Max Q.
He was working on a solo album at the time of his death. Producer Danny Saber completed the album released posthumously as the self-titled album in 1998.
Saber told Noise11 earlier this year that Michael was after a new challenge away from INXS when he was working on the solo record. “He had outgrown INXS at that point creatively and he was looking for something else,” Danny said. “The band had become so big and was on the downturn and he wanted to grow. I think it was more artistically driven than anything. It’s hard for bands that big. It’s like the changing of the seasons. Money comes into the equation and you don’t want to take creative risks anymore and Michael was all about creative risks”.
The last song Michael Hutchence ever wrote was ‘Baby It’s Alright’. Saber and Hutchence laid down the track just days before Michael’s death. It is on the ‘Michael Hutchence’ album.
The last song he ever sang live to an audience was a cover of Bowie’s ‘Suffragette City’ with Saber at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. “We did a show at the Viper Room, it was an allstar band gig,” Saber said. “I never got to perform with Michael in public before so I begged him, you have got to come up with me, it was an amazing night. He did ‘Suffragette City’. Billy Gibbons was there. So I got to perform with him a few days before he went back to Australia”.
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