Pod Insights DISGRACELAND INXS Pt. 2: Rock ‘n’ Roll Riots, Radio Bans, and a Letter Bomb About this episode The wild west of the Australian pub rock scene that ended in fire. A hit record stalled by controversy. A pilot passed out at 30,000 feet. And a bomb sent to a rock star’s hotel room. Listen to find out how INXS chased the world, touched a nerve, topped the charts – and learned that fame only multiplies the danger.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Speaker 00 This is exactly right.
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0:43 Jake Brennan? I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wines since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
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1:45 Jake Brennan? Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.
2:02 Jake Brennan? This is a story about danger, about how danger never really goes away, even after you've escaped the most dangerous place you've ever known. And this is also a story about a band that survived one of the most violent, lawless music scenes on Earth, only to discover that the farther they traveled from it, the nearer danger drew them in. This is about riots and near-death experiences, about criminals hiding out in mining camps. It's about crossing over, about paying a price, and about controversy. It's a story about how even the bands that make it out alive don't always make it out unscathed.
2:45 Jake Brennan? This is the story of how Inexcess became one of the biggest rock and roll bands on the planet. So of course, it's a story about great music. Unlike that clip I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called "Ya Na MK1." I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "My Sharona" by The Knack. And why would I play you that specific slice of Kurt Cobain-inspired cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number-one song in America on September 19, 1979. And that was the day that Australia's music scene literally went up in flames.
3:30 Jake Brennan? And six guys from Down Under forged in the white hot fire first set their sights on global superstardom. On this, a special Part II episode. Wild places, lawless scenes, criminals, mining camps, controversy, and Inexcess. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.
4:17 Jake Brennan? It was a land of opportunity and dust, a place for men who weren't welcome back home. Men blown west by the wind and hardened by the sun. Criminals running from their past and running from the law. It was a land without laws. Out here, there were only promises. Promises of wealth, of fame, and of a new life, a vast life, one that seemed as endless as the horizon. But those promises and that life were hard-earned, and they came at a price. And so, this was also a land of violence. It was a land where you backed up your best shot with bare knuckles.
4:59 Jake Brennan? A land where blood was spilled and where justice came at the sharp end of a knife blade or the jagged edge of a broken bottle. This land was not the Wild West of America in the late 1800s. This was the Wild West of Australia in the 1970s. Or should I say, the Wild West of the Australian music scene in the 1970s? Of course, New York had the Ramones and Suicide and Patti Smith, and London had The Clash and The Pistols, but by 1977, Australia had something even more untamed and unchecked. The Australian rock and roll circuit was lawless.
5:39 Jake Brennan? From Sydney to Melbourne, to far-flung mining and fishing towns like Calgorly, Port Hedland, and Bunbury, Australian audiences were desperate to rage, as Midnight Oil, as Peter Garrett once put it. And whether it was Midnight Oil, or The Saints, or Radio Birdman, or Cold Chisel, or even The Boys Next Door, that's what Nick Cave and the Birthday Party called themselves at first, Australian audiences were radicalized, mobilized, and energized by the music.
6:10 Jake Brennan? They wanted to be part of the show, and I mean physically. Street tough, sun-hardened subcultures like the Sharpies would roll up, their crop cuts tight, and their t-shirts tight, and their jeans tight, too. All of it tight, all of it sharp as fuck. They'd wait for a hippie, or a mod, or a rocker, anyone who wasn't a Sharpie, really, to do the wrong thing, to look at them the wrong way, to say the wrong word, and it was on. And that night's entertainment would then soundtrack the raw, primordial violence at ear-splitting volume. Meanwhile, a couple of truck drivers, six pints deep, would begin to beat each other's faces, and while some half-baked townie at the bar weaponized a beer bottle in order to express his displeasure at the fact that he couldn't hear the football game on the shitty television set that hung above
6:54 Jake Brennan? the cash register. But one venue's bar in particular served as a buffer between the audience and the band. At the Star Hotel in Newcastle, New South Wales, the band played "behind the bar," while the 200 or so patrons packed inside had to stand "on the bar" if they wanted to really connect with the music on that untamed, physical level. But the physical state of the Star Hotel was just about as dodgy as its rough-around-the-edges clientele. And so, on September 19th, 1979, the venerable live music venue hosted its final shows before shutting down for good. Bands began playing at noon that day, and
7:38 Jake Brennan? they went until 10:00 PM that night, which, per a local ordinance, was curfew. The club was at capacity inside, but outside, thousands more had gathered to give their beloved Star Hotel the send-off it deserved. The cops walked into the Star at 10:00 PM on the dot. One of the local bands, Heroes, were wrapping up their final song. And the thin walls were shaking, and the stench of sweat and beer and cigarettes was as strong as Heroes were allowed. But the cops aimed to be louder, just by being present. They forced the music to stop before that final song was technically over, but not before Heroes' lead singer leaned into the mic with a parting thought.
8:19 Speaker 04 The pigs say we gotta go.
8:23 Jake Brennan? And the place erupted. All that untamed energy that had been put into the music, into this codependent symbiotic relationship, now had nowhere else to go, but to refocus itself on the ones who had denied them their joy and communion and rage. As the cops put the Heroes' defiant singer in handcuffs, the crowd emptied onto the street. And out there, in the warm spring air, a riot broke out, chants of "Piss off pigs", while the locals wrestled with the police. As one bystander was led into a waiting ambulance with blood running down his face, another managed to steal a cop's service revolver. A group of men rocked the police car back and forth, finally tipping it over.
9:06 Jake Brennan? And as it came to rest on its hood, fuel began to leak from the gas tank and spill onto the pavement. Some random source of ignition was then tossed onto the liquid, a stray cigarette perhaps. And within seconds, the cruiser erupted in a fireball. The flames quickly spread to a nearby paddy wagon, which burned alongside the cruiser. While the memories of all the shows inside the tiny Star Hotel drifted off into the night, left the smoke that was now billowing from the wreckage. Only a few weeks before the now infamous Star Hotel riots, the Sydney-by-way-of-Pirth band, The Ferris Brothers, had just played their first gig under the catchier new name,
9:50 Jake Brennan? Inexcess. Just like Heroes and Cold Chisel and Midnight Oil and all the rest, Inexcess and the Brothers Ferris, that's Andrew, John, and Tim, along with Gary Beers, Kirk Pengilly, and lead singer Michael Hutchence, had come up in the lawless years of the Australian pub-rock circuit. They were forged by the white-hot danger of the scene. Even if your perception of Inexcess has always been the pretty boys of the 1980s and early 1990s era of rock and roll, the pretty boy thing was just attention-getting. The pretty boy thing sold records, millions of records, but I'm getting ahead of myself. By matter of fact, Inexcess were a product of an exceedingly hostile environment.
10:34 Jake Brennan? And this environment wasn't necessarily the Star Hotel on the evening of September 19, 1979. Instead, theirs was a mining camp in Goldsworthy, a two-day drive from Sydney, where they were offered $1,000 to entertain the workers for a week.
10:52 Jake Brennan? And like some of the crowd at the Star, many of these mining workers lived one step ahead of the law. They came to Goldsworthy to hide from judges and lawyers and women. Out here in the dust, in the dirt, all their pent-up aggression, all their violence, it ripped into the ground beneath them with their shovels, with their picks that they held in their calloused hands. This area of Australia was unforgiving, a dystopian Mad Max vision where chaos and disorder lingered in the silences, where the miners made it through another day only because they knew that a bunch of bustin' whores were waiting for them in the decrepit shacks on site. This was a land where, as Inexcess'
11:36 Jake Brennan? tour van rocketed west and then north, John Ferris looked out the window only to see a pile of dead kangaroos on the side of the road. It was a land where you didn't know whether the audience was going to applaud or jump from their chair and strangle you till the life was squeezed from your body. It was a land where there was fear even in the communal bathroom, which was crawling with spiders as big as one of those working man's calloused hands. But a thousand bucks was a thousand bucks, and so John Ferris and Michael Hutchinson Inexcess did what any other band in Australia circa the late 1970s would do. They took the gig. Besides, some steady money meant that Kirk no longer had to sell weed out of his guitar case to make ends meet. And in making the drive
12:20 Jake Brennan? and taking the gig, surrounded by dead kangaroos and giant spiders and hardened criminals and all, Inexcess learned how to survive. But survival wasn't enough. John, Kirk, Michael, and the guys aspired to things bigger than the vastness of the brutal Australian scene. They wanted the world. They wanted to cross over to the world, which was something that some of even the most popular Australian bands like The Great Cold Chisel were never able to achieve. Inexcess also didn't exactly fit in with the Australia thing. And what I mean by that is that they weren't a band for the raging crowd. They didn't inspire the Sharpies and their rivals to bang heads.
13:03 Jake Brennan? They were a band that made you shake your ass instead. And so, they used that to their advantage, to pull themselves up to that next rung of success. But it took more than ass-shaking funk, more than talent and drive, to realize crossover worldwide success. It required an ever-present Danger as your companion. Because once Inexcess left Australia to take on the world, Danger followed them. It rode with them in tandem, until it eventually threatened their lives.
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14:27 Jake Brennan? I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
14:58 Speaker 05 Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I spoke with IBM's Ana Paula Assis about what digital sovereignty actually means in the age of AI.
15:09 Speaker 06 AI now moves from somebody operating a system to the technology actually making decisions. So you have to have a much better visibility of what AI is touching, data it is accessing, and where.
15:25 Speaker 05 Hear the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts.
15:33 Jake Brennan? It took a little over three years from their first official gig as Inexcess for Michael, Gary, Kirk, and the Ferris Brothers to break into America. Three years in which they kept their collective nose to the grindstone, recording, touring, and honing their sound, which continued to be a little more sleek and a lot more funky than most of their contemporaries back home. Three years in which they went into autopilot, put in the reps, kept hammering at the dream, just like those lawless miners kept hammering at the ground with their shovels. And when at last they hit the golden shores of America in March of 1983, they did so on the back of their first album to be released stateside, Shabu Shabah, which was actually
16:16 Jake Brennan? their third album in Australia. The album's lead single, "The One Thing," had even gone all the way to number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. But waiting for them at the club in San Diego, where they were to begin a tour opening for Adam and the Ants, was not a crowd anywhere near the size of the crowd that had rioted outside the Star Hotel on its final night. It was even smaller than a typical audience of redneck manual laborers back in Goldsworthy. 24 people, that's who was waiting for Inexcess in America. 24 people. Clearly, there was more work to do. Clearly, they had to push themselves even harder
16:56 Jake Brennan? in order to set themselves apart, which meant they had to funk even harder. There was only one man in America who could take them to the promised land of funk with a touch so deft and a sound so smooth that it could not be denied. And they found that man where all walks of funk and rock melted down into one undeniable groove: New York City. Michael Hutchence took it all in. The pine-paneled walls, the 35-foot-high ceilings, the state-of-the-art Neve mixing console. The Hell's Kitchen recording studio, known as The Power Station, came as advertised. This was where real bands made records. And it was where Inexcess was now beginning to make The Swing, their fourth LP.
17:41 Jake Brennan? But even better than the legendary location was the company. Sitting next to Michael in front of the Neve, knocking out those trademark rhythmic chunks on his Stratocaster, was Nile Rodgers. The Nile Rodgers, as in chic, as in ahh freak out, as in the guy who had just helmed mega hits by Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. And only one year prior, had produced David Bowie's album Let's Dance in this very same space. Nile cleared his calendar after seeing Inexcess open in Toronto for Men at Work, another Australian band who were having their own moment in North America with their huge hit Down Under. Now, here was Inexcess at The Power Station,
18:25 Jake Brennan? laying down Michael and Andrew's new song, Original Sin, with Nile Rodgers adding his unmistakable rhythm guitar to the track. It was just the thing. It was American groove meets Australian grit. It was minimal, it was tight, and it had style for days. Music may be the universal language, but style was the currency. And Nile Rodgers knew this, as did Nile's friend Darryl Hall of Hall & Oates, who sat in on the session as a favor and sang backing vocals. But style also required substance, something that Nile also knew, just like rock and roll needed that little bit of danger.
19:07 Jake Brennan? So Nile pulled Michael aside when they were recording the lead vocal track, and he made a suggestion. Instead of singing "Dream on, white boy, dream on, white girl" in the chorus, Nile said, "How about making it 'Dream on, black boy, dream on, white girl'?"
19:24 Jake Brennan? Nile came from an interracial family, so the note was personal for him. But also, this was rock and roll. It was supposed to be provocative. It was supposed to cross barriers. And by blending black and white in the lyrics, Inexcess could cleverly mirror how their music was now blending black R&B with white new wave. Not only did it sound good and make a big statement, it also seemed like the perfect recipe to really cross over into America. But crossing over into America in this way would come with a price. Just like those hard-earned promises out in the Wild West to the Australian music scene once came with a cost. "Original Sin" may have been the band's first number-one hit back in their native country,
20:08 Jake Brennan? but in the States, its moderate success was tinged with controversy. It seems crazy now, in 2026, but in 1984, a song about an interracial romance could be a dangerous prospect, depending on who was listening and where. Darryl Hall's manager was listening, and he was pissed. And when he heard the final mix, he wasted no time calling up Nile Rodgers and giving him a piece of his mind. Who the fuck did he think he was, changing that line without first getting permission? Dream on, black boy? Was he fucking crazy? Did he understand how problematic that was? How problematic that was for his client? It was downright scandalous, is what it was, and Darryl Hall didn't do scandal. Nile Rodgers didn't let the criticism bother him.
20:52 Jake Brennan? The rest of the country, not so much. American radio stations banned the song from rotation, thus preventing it from charting any higher than number 58, where it stalled out on the Billboard Hot 100. One radio station in Illinois even received a bomb threat from a caller who demanded the song be taken out the air immediately. Inexcess escaped from the controversy relatively unscathed. After all, they'd been shaped and molded by far worse back in the Down Under scene. If anything, all the attention, both positive and negative, strengthened their resolve. You know, you touch a nerve, you're doing it right, and all that. Andrew and Michael continued to contribute most to the band's songwriting, crafting
21:36 Jake Brennan? a number of killer tracks for their next record, 1985's "Listen Like Thieves." The album was made with English producer Chris Thomas, who had worked previously with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. Thomas held on to the funky swagger that Nile Rodgers had brought to the table, but he folded it into an album that sounded like an in excess show felt: big, sweaty, sexy. The album was their first global smash, and the last song they recorded for it, the most excellent lead single "What You Need," finally cracked the top 10 in America, where the album quickly went gold. This was all happening as Australia's cultural cachet in the States was set to soar, with
22:19 Jake Brennan? the blockbuster movie Crocodile Dundee and those ubiquitous Foster's beer commercials right around the corner. It was also happening with the promotional arm of MTV, which put the music video for "What You Need" into heavy rotation. All this newfound fame and success allowed Inexcess to settle into the welcoming arms of rock and roll excess, where they could make psychotic rock and roll choices, like "Fly From America To Australia Overnight," down and back, just so they could shoot their next music video for their song "Kiss The Dirt" on a salt lake with Horizon for days. It was a crazy idea. And that said, the flight there, and the shoot itself, all that went just fine.
23:04 Jake Brennan? But the trouble started on the flight back to the States. When Tim Ferriss woke up from his rock and roll slumber, 30,000 feet up in the air, only to find the pilot passed out.
23:20 Speaker 07 We'll be right back after this.
23:22 Speaker 01 Word, word, word.
23:25 Speaker 01 Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
23:56 Jake Brennan? I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
24:26 Speaker 05 Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I spoke with IBM's Ana Paula Assis about what digital sovereignty actually means in the age of AI.
24:37 Speaker 06 AI now moves from somebody operating a system to the technology actually making decisions. So you have to have a much better visibility of what AI is touching, data it is accessing, and where.
24:53 Speaker 05 Hear the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts.
25:00 Jake Brennan? Okay, so we've established that when done right, rock and roll is a dangerous game. But rock and roll is also a young man's game. And you can only pull off the kinds of stunts Inexcess were pulling off in the 1980s if you were young, mid to late 20s tops, which happened at the age of all the members of the band at the time. And incidentally, as old as you possibly can be to hop a private plane in the States, land in Australia 15 hours later, shoot a music video on the moon planes north of Adelaide, and in the so-called opal capital of the world, a town called Coober Pedy's, get back on the plane just a few hours later, ragged but right, ride a high-pressure system back to the good old US of A, and Bob's your uncle. Michael Hutchence was neither Bob, nor was he your uncle.
25:45 Jake Brennan? But he was known to the rest of the guys as the Candyman. On account of all the mind altering goodies he carried in his candy bag, or candy satchel, or whatever he called the receptacle on which he hid away his stash of illicit drugs. Right now, however, the Candyman was fast asleep, slumped in his seat aboard the band's private plane, high above the deep, dark abyss of the Pacific, en route back to the land of the free and home of the brave. Just hours earlier, the Candyman had bravely stood atop the windshield planes of Cubrepedes, the sun beating down, and the sand flying in his face. Black t-shirt, jeans, big belt buckle, moves like Jagger, lip syncing while looking like anyone's platonic ideal of a frontman,
26:29 Jake Brennan? while a director shot footage for the music video for Inexcess's latest single, Kiss the Dirt, falling down the mountain. Now was the aftermath of that shoot, and most everyone was asleep on the plane, perhaps courtesy of some of the goodies in the Candyman's bag. But at some point, Tim Ferriss was shaken awake by a little burst of turbulence.
26:52 Jake Brennan? He wiped his eyes, stood up, and carefully made his way from the back of the plane to the front, curious to see whether the pilot knew if they were heading into more nasty weather ahead.
27:03 Jake Brennan? As he approached the cockpit, the plane shifted again. Tim grabbed one of the overhead compartments to stabilize himself and rubbed his eyes once more, this time because he wasn't believing what he was seeing. His brother, Andrew, was sitting in the pilot's seat, frozen in fear, white knuckling the yoke in his hands. Tim's eyes then went from one shocking sight to the next, turning his head slightly to witness the plane's pilot snoring in the seat next to Andrew, way off in dreamland with drool running down his chin. Tim darted forward as Andrew struggled to keep the plane level. "The fuck is going on, Andrew?" Andrew couldn't take his eyes off the sky in front of him. "I don't know," he said to his brother.
27:46 Jake Brennan? "The pilot asked if I wanted to steer, and the next thing I know, he's out." As Tim shook the pilot awake, he couldn't help but wonder, "What if he hadn't woken up when he did? What if the pilot hadn't woken up?" All the what ifs began to bounce around in his mind, along with this one. "What if we just cheated death?"
28:08 Jake Brennan? That's an intoxicating thought, especially for young men playing a dangerous game. That feeling of invincibility, of being able to do anything, including flying a plane. And that's sort of how I carried over into the sessions for Inexcess's next album, their follow-up to their big breakthrough, Listen Like Thieves. Once again, they worked with producer Chris Thomas, this time, recording not only at a studio in Sydney, but also at a studio in Paris, where they found the recording console dusted with cocaine left behind from a recent Rolling Stones session, or so the French-speaking studio assistant assured them.
28:49 Jake Brennan? Such was rock and roll, a world of myths that is built brick by brick by the observers hanging out on the sidelines. As the sessions for album number six wound down, Chris Thomas feared they had a problem similar to one they'd had with the last album. They didn't have a strong lead single. "What You Need" had been the last song recorded for Listen Like Thieves, written explicitly to be a hit, and it did manage to become one of Inexcess's biggest singles. So Thomas told Andrew and Michael that they had two weeks, two weeks, to write the album's best song and lead single. The pressure was intense, even for a couple of guys who felt invincible and had faced more treacherous predicaments in their past.
29:33 Jake Brennan? But necessity is the mother of invention. So Andrew found himself leaving his apartment and getting into the back of a taxi waiting outside his place so that he could go to the airport and fly to Hong Kong, where he and Michael would hole up in his brother John's apartment and squeeze out a hit song. As soon as he closed the door and the cabby began to pull away from the curb, Andrew heard it in his head. Dun, dun, dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun, dun, dun. "Stop!" he yelled at the cab driver. "Stop!" "I-I forgot something back in my place." The cabby sighed, clearly annoyed. Andrew struggled to keep the riff in his head. Dun, dun, dun.
30:17 Jake Brennan? Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. And he threw open the door and tumbled out and ran upstairs to his apartment.
30:26 Jake Brennan? Forty minutes later, he emerged, climbing into the backseat of the cab once more, now with a cassette tape in his hand, watching the cabby up front shifting. Clearly annoyed, but not too annoyed, honestly, because the meter was running and, well, time was money.
30:42 Jake Brennan? Yes, Andrew thought, time was money. And with those forty minutes of time upstairs, he was able to lay down that razor-sharp rhythm guitar riff that had come to him like divine intervention, along with a complimentary bass part and a drum machine beat, thus laying down the groundwork for the most money he and the guys would ever make in their lives. And when he got to Hong Kong, he played the track for Michael, who ran with him, and in far less than their allotted two weeks, they had their hit. "Need You Tonight" became Inexcess's first and only number-one song in America. The full album, Kick, was a certifiable sensation, a new sensation, a ubiquitous slab of funk
31:24 Jake Brennan? rock that took over the world, even if detractors like the dean of American rock critics, Robert Criscow, called them silly middlebrow hacks, which is what he wrote at the time. The printed word couldn't hurt Inexcess, not in 1987, when they were on top of the world, nor could it hurt them back in 1977, when they were beset on all sides by criminals and Wild West opportunists. But a few years after the smashed success of "Need You Tonight," as Inexcess continued to solidify their status as one of the greatest modern rock and roll bands, an envelope arrived at the hotel room of Michael Hutchins, an envelope containing not the printed word,
32:05 Jake Brennan? as one would expect, but something far more sinister. Because as fame, notoriety, success, as all those things increase, so too does danger.
32:18 Jake Brennan? But not in direct proportion. The danger increases tenfold.
32:39 Jake Brennan? Hey guys, back in our part one episode on Inexcess, I briefly mentioned how the Gallagher brothers of Oasis used their speech at an award show to throw shade at Michael Hutchins and Inexcess, and how that affected Michael, how it really messed him up in a lot of ways. And what we didn't have time to get into was the aftermath of that diss and how Michael eventually got his own revenge, eternal, infinite revenge, actually. It's a pretty entertaining and surprising story, and you can hear all about it in this week's DisgraceLand mini episode. To do that, you gotta be a member of DisgraceLand All Access. Sign up through Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Go to disgracelandpod.com to do just that. All right, back to our part two episode on Inexcess, right now.
33:29 Jake Brennan? In 1993, rock and roll was in crisis. Bands that had dominated MTV and the airways for years, bands like Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, even Inexcess, bands that still managed to represent a threat to the moral order of things, suddenly, in the cold light of day, in the light now ushered in by the so-called grunge movement. These older bands began to feel less authentic, or even worse, uncool. By the time Nirvana released In Utero in September of that year, the very idea of the rock star had become suspect. Kurt Cobain was the biggest rock star on the planet, but then, no he wasn't. Kurt was the anti-rock
34:10 Jake Brennan? star. He was the flipside of what Michael Hutchins so easily and effectively embodied. The guy preening and prowling onstage with his shirt unbuttoned and rock and roll as we knew it, was being reframed as nothing but myth in light of Kurt and grunge's realism.
34:28 Jake Brennan? Of course, it was all a pose, whether you were in a hairband or in a Seattle band, or whether or not your band still had a saxophone player, as Inexcess did. My point here is that as early as 1993, the writing was on the wall. And by the end of the decade, at the turn of the century, rock and roll as we knew it would be dead. And don't get me wrong here, we still had rock bands, and we still do some very good ones at that, but rock and roll as a cultural force, as a menace to society, that was long gone by 2000. All that was left was for rock to become institutional, nostalgic, and corporatized, while hip-hop rushed in to fill the cultural void. But again, in 93, rock wasn't quite dead yet.
35:12 Jake Brennan? It was simply in crisis. It would be another four years before Michael Hutchins found himself in crisis, in a Sydney hotel room, attempting to navigate the impassable, that dark night of the soul. Tonight, it was a different hotel room, somewhere in Germany, where Inexcess were performing as part of their Get Out of the House tour. Their ninth and latest album, Full Moon: Dirty Hearts, was already suffering from the grunge effect. It didn't even break the top 50 in America, a far cry from the commercial triumph of Kick and its follow-up, X, No Matter. This tour was all about going back, back to basics, back to small clubs and even smaller
35:57 Jake Brennan? audiences, back to the way things were before Inexcess became worldwide superstars. But there was no going back. These guys were superstars. They'd been the subjects of adulation, coveted, and obsessed over, and despised, all at the same time. They were the recipients of shrieks and screams, of lovesick confessions, and of strange correspondences. And one of those correspondences, sent to Michael Hutchins at his hotel, almost went down like this.
36:26 Jake Brennan? Michael turned the envelope over in his hands. It was heavier than it seemed, and oddly shaped. And he was unsure if the letter had been mailed to the hotel or simply dropped off. His German was rusty, and the front lobby could only help so much. But there was no return address. And again, it was so oddly shaped, so lumpy, so strange, this envelope. He wondered what could be inside. Fans said all sorts of creepy and wonderful things, dependent on the day and the fan. Michael grabbed hold of the end of the envelope with his fingers, and as he tore it open, he saw the flash before he heard the explosion, and then...
37:09 Jake Brennan? Fortunately for Michael, this didn't actually happen. Although he was, in fact, sent a letter bomb at his German hotel. A man who had worked for Inexcess for a decade after years as a police officer intercepted the envelope and identified it as an explosive device long before Michael got his hands on it. It was a poorly, cheaply-made letter bomb, but a bomb nevertheless. One that could have done significant damage to Michael had he opened it. Could have even killed him. Michael and his bodyguard kept this nearly fatal incident a secret for years. And Michael took it to his grave, and the bodyguard only revealed what had happened seven years after Michael's death in 2014.
37:53 Jake Brennan? He recalled that Michael was pretty even keeled when he was initially informed about the letter bomb. He understood that no one was ever really safe in this world, and that someone in his position was perhaps more susceptible to danger than most. But at the end of the day, he was an entertainer. He was a rock star, as were the other members of his band. And so it was on to the next show, and then the next town, the next country, and so on. It turns out, for Michael Hutchence at least, the real danger was hidden not in an envelope, or in a spider-infested mining camp out in the wild boonies of Australia, but inside himself.
38:37 Jake Brennan? And when Michael died, the danger died with him. And that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.
39:02 Jake Brennan? Hey, guys. Thanks for checking out this episode of DisgraceLand on Inexcess. Listen, we're asking the question this week, which artists have had the most cultural impact that were not from the United States or England? So basically, which international artist has made the biggest cultural impact? Obviously, we're talking about this because Inexcess being from Australia, but it can be a band or an artist from any country. Let me know, 617-906-6638. Voicemail and text, at disgracelandpod on the socials. Listen, if you're a DisgraceLand fan, you can leave a review to support the show over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You might win some free merch. And if you want to further support the show, you can do so at Patreon by becoming an All-Access member. For as little as $1 a month,
39:46 Jake Brennan? you're going to unlock access to the entire DisgraceLand community exclusive and ad-free content. All right, here comes some credits. DisgraceLand was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a DisgraceLand All-Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Members can listen to every episode of DisgraceLand ad-free. Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook, at @disgracelandpod. And on YouTube at youtube.com-at-disgracelandpod. Rockerola.
40:33 Speaker 04 He's a bad, bad man.
40:36 Jake Brennan? Hey guys, time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage. It's back by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20th, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of DisgraceLand, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners, Wisecrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive
41:17 Jake Brennan? true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage. Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot. I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
41:58 Speaker 08 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.
42:11 Speaker 07 Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist
42:53 Speaker 07 about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair, paid for by Genentech and Novartis.
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