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INXS Gets What It Needs
07/08/2005 4:53 PM, E! Online
Charlie Amter
Record deal. Check. Comeback tour scheduled. Check. Now all that's
left on INXS' to-do list is a doozy: find a new lead singer.
Epic Records has announced that it has signed the onetime hit-making
1980s band to a new deal.
"We're very happy to be joining the
Epic family and can't wait to get back into the studio to record again,"
guitarist Andrew Farriss said a press release Thursday. "It's been too
long! Everyone in the band is truly looking forward to the months ahead
and this great new chapter in our career."
That new chapter
officially kicks off on Monday, when CBS starts airing Rock Star:
INXS, a reality competition that aims to deliver the band a new
singer to replace Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997.
CBS won a bidding war for the American Idol, which will
feature Andrew Farriss and the other surviving band members--his
brothers Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers--putting 15
wannabes through their paces.
The roster of aspiring vocalists
is made up of eight women and seven men with varying levels of
experience. For example, Wil Seabrook once opened for Dave Matthews and
Chris Isaak; the Mohawk-sporting Ty Taylor is a veteran of Broadway
musicals, including the title role in Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat; Suzie McNeil once sang with an ABBA tribute
band; Jordis Unga was a Star Search semifinalist; and J.D.
Fortune is a former Elvis impersonator.
On Monday's premiere
episode cohost and former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarrro joins
the band and immediately puts the contestants on the spot, asking them
to perform in a live concert setting. The performance takes place at Los
Angeles' Mayan Theater, the site of INXS' last L.A. show with
Hutchence.
The Mark Burnett-masterminded series, which is
cohosted by former Wild On host Brooke Burke and will run
Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for 13 weeks, will also focus on the
interpersonal relationships between contestants as they share a mansion
in the Hollywood Hills. The singers will also be put through workshops
on everything from songwriting and performance to image and production.
The eventual winner will perform with INXS in the live
concert finale, record an album with the band and then front a
subsequent INXS world tour playing more than 100 cities. The album and
tour are slated for later this year.
Founded in Sydney in
1977, INXS has sold more than 30 million records worldwide. Albums like
1984's The Swing and 1987's Kick, and radio-friendly tunes
like "Devil Inside," "New Sensation," "What You Need" and "Need You
Tonight" propelled the group from cult new wave fave to bona fide
globetrotting arena rockers.
The band stumbled in the early
1990s, with a couple of lackluster albums. Many wrote off the band for
good when charismatic but enigmatic frontman Hutchence--the band's
resident sex symbol--hanged himself in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. INXS
soldiered on, using hired-gun vocalists like Jon Stevens and Terence
Trent D'Arby to middling success. But now, with Burnett's help, the band
is hoping the reality TV route will help make it a new, if slightly
older, sensation again.
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