Andrew Farriss is no stranger to life in the spotlight; the Perth-born multi-hyphenate, after all, did spend the better part of three decades as the backbone of one of the biggest rock acts to come out of Australia.
INXS‘ story – which began with a humble gig in Sydney‘s Northern Beaches in the late ’70s – is now enshrined in the fabric of the local and global music industry, becoming more legend-like with each retelling.
Behind the mythos, however, were six very real humans whose skyrocket saw a reality thrust upon them that many would balk at – and the fact Farriss didn’t is thanks to one quiet move he made in 1992.
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“I was becoming a little insecure about the lifestyle of living out of hotel rooms and travelling all the time,” Farriss, now 65, tells 9honey Celebrity.
Fresh off a sold-out Wembley Stadium show and two back-to-back best-selling albums – of which a majority of songs within were written by Farriss and late frontman Michael Hutchence – Farriss found himself feeling “ungrounded”.
“The international, stellar career the INXS guys experienced is not really normal.”
The – quite literally – natural solution was to buy an old dairy farm outside of Tamworth and a tractor, and do it up.
“I started messing around with dangerous tools and all kinds of stuff that most musicians go, ‘I don’t think I should do that’ because it’s either something that can really hurt you… or affect the rest of your career if you get it wrong,” Farriss says with a wry chuckle.
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“My whole life I’ve enjoyed a challenge,” he thought. “So, you know, here’s another one.”
He dived headfirst into it – with a “safety first” mindset, Farriss stresses, after a close call involving a chainsaw and his foot – and eventually, the property became a sanctuary not just for Farriss but for his parents, particularly after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Almost 20 years later, when his wife Marlina Neeley was also diagnosed with breast cancer four months after their 2013 wedding, it became her sanctuary too.
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What Farriss could not have predicted all those years ago when he was seeking a refuge was how his $2.05 million (now $4.6 million) purchase would influence his next leap out of the nest.
Farriss’ cattle farm is, after all, situated just outside of Australia’s country music capital – and in October, the Australian Songwriter Hall of Famer’s 10-date Something Stronger national tour will reintroduce him to the nation as a country music artist.
Playing his new single Something Stronger – the lead hit off his sophomore solo album The Prospector, out 2025 – as well as old favourites, fans from Cronulla to Bunbury and beyond will see a different side to the seasoned rocker.
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Farriss may have three Grammy nominations under his belt thanks to his work with INXS, but he’s not immune to nerves. In fact, they’re an old friend.
“To quote John Lennon, ‘You’re lucky if anyone likes you’. That’s what he said,” Farris says. “You’ve got to be grateful if anybody likes your music.”
“The international, stellar career that the INXS guys experienced is not really normal,” he continues. “That was something else and went on for a long time… we had a lot of big hits around the world, and I reflect on those years sometimes.
“But you know what? I also reflect on the early years when we were trying to make it and we weren’t very well known as a group, and some of those times were really extremely enjoyable.”
Sometimes chasing a dream, Farriss says, is more thrilling than the reality of when you achieve it.
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Farriss’ new dream of being a solo artist wasn’t on his radar until recently – the award-winning composer was actually recording demos of songs he’d written to send to other artists in America when his sound engineer asked him a simple question that changed the trajectory of his career.
“He said, ‘What’s wrong with your voice?’,” Farriss recalls, which took him aback. After so many years of being relegated to backing vocals, Farriss just assumed his songs would be sold to someone else to sing – but the sound engineer, with a smile on his face, told him to go for it.
And go for it he did.
“I had that encouragement from people who didn’t have any preconception about what the early part of my career was. They didn’t care,” he says.
“They just liked what they were hearing. And that meant a lot to me because it gave me some confidence to keep going.”
Tickets for Andrew Farriss’ Something Stronger tour go on sale on Monday, July 22, 2024. Click here for more information.
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