
Get every episode summarized
Each time DISGRACELAND publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
About this episode
“The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going, blending rugged muscle with precision engineering, all supported by Toyota's time-tested legacy of dependability. Step into a Tundra and feel the unyielding capability.”From the transcript
Get every episode summarized
Each time DISGRACELAND publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Transcript ready
423 searchable segments. Every word is indexed and playable.
Full transcript
DISGRACELAND — INXS Pt. 2: Rock ‘n’ Roll Riots, Radio Bans, and a Letter Bomb. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going, blending rugged muscle with precision engineering, all supported by Toyota's time-tested legacy of dependability. Step into a Tundra and feel the unyielding capability. With the available iForce Max engine, Tundra puts out impressive power, torque and towing performance, and the Rumi high-tech cabin keeps you connected on the go, or take a look at the Tacoma, made for drivers who push past the path, agile tough and relentless, with available features like crawl control, a portable JBL speaker and a power lift gate, so gear goes in fast and the adventures keep moving. The Tacoma and Tundra are engineered to endure, season after season, mile after mile, so drive on home today, visit Toyota.com or stop by your local Toyota dealer to find out more Toyota. Let's go places.
Testing season is right around the corner, and this is when confidence really matters. When kids take time to review key concepts and strengthen their skills before assessments, it can make all the difference. IXL helps reinforce what they're learning right now, so they walk into every test feeling prepared, capable and confident. IXL is an award-winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning, whether they're building math confidence, strengthening reading and writing skills, or reviewing science concepts. Designed for students from Pre-K through 12th grade, IXL delivers personalized interactive practice that adapts to your child's level and pace. It's an easy, effective way to support learning as the school year heads into its final stretch. Study show kids who use IXL score higher on tests, proven in all 50 states. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the US. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now, and listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today
at IXLLearning.com slash audio. Visit IXLLearning.com slash audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Disgrace land is a production of double Elvis. 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. 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. This is the story of how in excess 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 melotron called Yana MK1. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to my Shirona by the knack. Why would I play you that specific slice of Kurt Cobain inspiring cheese could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on September 19th, 1979. And that was the day that Australia's music scene literally went up in flames. And six guys from down under forged in the white hot fire first set their sights on global superstar. On this, a special part two episode, wild
places, lawless scenes, criminals, mining camps, controversy, and in excess. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgrace Land. 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, of vast life. One that seemed as endless as the
horizon. But those promises in 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. A land where blood was spilled and where justice came at the sharpened 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 Patty Smith and London had the clash and the pistols, but by 1977, Australia had something even more untamed unchecked. The Australian rock and roll circuit was lawless. From Sydney to Melbourne to far flung mining and fishing towns like Calgorli, Port Headland, and Bunbury. Australian audiences
were desperate to rage, as midnight oil's Peter Garrett once put it. And whether it was midnight oil or the saints or radio bird man or cold chisel or even the boys next door, that's what Nick came in the birthday party called themselves at first. Australian audiences were radicalized, mobilized, and energized by the music. They wanted to be part of the show and I mean physically. Street tough sunhardened 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-point steep, 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, the fact that he couldn't hear the football game on the shitty television set that hung above the cash register. But one of them used 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 a 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 it's 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 they went until 10pm that night, which per a local ordinance was curfew. The club was at capacity inside, but outside, thousands more gathered to give their beloved star hotel the send-off it deserved.
The cops walked into the star at 10pm 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 as lead singer leaned into the mic with a parting thought. The pigs say we gotta go. 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 in communion and rage. As the cops put the heroes as 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 police.
As one bystander was led into awaiting 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. 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 patty wagon which burned alongside the cruiser. While the memories of all the shows inside the tiny star hotel drifted off into the night, like 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 Perth, Bann, the Ferris brothers, had just played their first gig under the catchier new name in excess. Just like heroes in cold chisel and midnight oil and all the rest, in excess, the brothers Ferris,
that's Andrew John and Tim, along with Gary Beers, Kirk Pengillian, lead singer Michael Hutchins, 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 in excess 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, in excess were a product of an exceedingly hostile environment. In this environment, it 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. 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 and the dirt, all their pent-up aggression, all their violence, it ripped into the ground beneath them with their shovels, with their picks, but 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 bust-in horrors were waiting for them in the decrepit shacks on site. This was a land where, as in excesses Torván 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 to the life with squeeze 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 callous tans.
But a thousand bucks was a thousand bucks and so John Ferris and Michael Hutchinson in excess 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 a cell weed out of his guitar case to make ends meet. And in making the drive and taking the gig, surrounded by dead kangaroos and giant spiders and hardened criminals and all, in excess 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. In excess, also didn't exactly fit in with the Australian thing. And what I mean by that is that they weren't banned for the raging crowd. They didn't inspire the sharpies and their rivals to bang heads.
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 in excess left Australia to take on the world, danger followed them. It rode with them in tandem. Until it eventually threatened their lives. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching
to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Multitask right now. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates national average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. Spring starts at the Home Depot, and we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season. Fire up the flavor with our wide variety of grills for under $300. Like the next grill for burner gas grill that's perfect for hosting your spring cookout. Then set the scene and turn your outdoor space into the go-to spot the patio sets for every budget. Bring it this season with grills that deliver flavor and patios that set the vibe from the Home Depot. Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. Exclusions apply to home Depot.com slash price match for details. Protein is now at Starbucks, and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein,
cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks. It took a little over three years from their first official gig as an excess 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 it lasts 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 Shaba, which was actually their third album in Australia. The albums 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 or opening for Adam in the dance, 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 Goldsbury. 24 people, that's who was waiting for in excess in America. 24 people. Clearly there was more work to do. Clearly they had to push themselves even harder 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 depth and it sounds 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 Hutchins 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 in excess was now beginning to make the swing, their 4th LP. 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 a Stratocaster was now Rogers. The Nile Rogers, as in Sheik, as in Aw Freak Out, as in the guy who had just helmed mega hits by Sister Sledge in 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 in excess open and Toronto for men at work. Another Australian band who were having their own moment in North America with a huge hit down under. Now, here was in excess at the Power Station, laying down Michael and Andrew's new song Original
Sin, with Nile Rogers 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 Rogers knew this. As did Nile's friend Darryl Hall of Hall and Oats, who sat in on the session as a favor in saying packing vocals. But style also required substance, something the Nile also knew. Just like Rock and Roll needed that little bit of danger. So now 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? 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. By blending black and white in the lyrics, in excess 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. The crossing over into America in this way would come with a price. Just like those hard earned promises out in the wild west of 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, 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. Dara Hall's manager was listening and he was pissed. When he heard the final mix, he wasted no time calling up Nile Rogers 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 as what it was and Dara Hall didn't do scandal. Now Rogers didn't let the criticism bother him. 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. In excess escaped from a controversy relatively unscathed. After all, they've 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 to the band's songwriting, crafting a number of killer tracks for their next record, 1985's Listen Like These. 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 now Rogers have brought to the table, but he folded it into an album that sounded like an in-access 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 cache and the states was set to sore, with the blockbuster movie Crocodile Dundee, and those ubiquitous fosters 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 new found fame and success allowed in-access 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. But the trouble started on the flight back to the states, when Tim Ferris woke up from his rock and roll slumber, 30,000 feet up in the air, only to find the pilot passed out. We'll be right back after this world, world, world. You know what they say. Early bird gets the ultimate vacation home. Book early and save over $120 with Berba, because early gets you closer to the action, whether it's waves lapping at the shore, or snoozing in a hammock that overlooks, well,
whatever you want it to. So you can all enjoy the payoff come summer with Berba's early booking deals. Rise and shine. Advert savings $141. Select homes only. Your little one grew three inches overnight. Adorable. Also expensive. Sell their pint-sized pieces on Deepop, and list them in minutes with no selling fees. Because somewhere, a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kid will outgrow tomorrow, and he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth bird budget secured. Start selling on Deepop, where taste recognizes taste. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast, smart move. Being financially savvy, smart move. Another smart move, having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save
with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Covered options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. 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 in excess we're pulling off in the 1980s, if you were young. Mid to late 20's 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 state's 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 Cuberpedes get back on the plane just a few hours later, ragged but right, ride a high pressure system back to the good old U.S. of A and Bob's your uncle. Michael Hutchins was neither Bob nor was he your uncle,
but he was known to the rest of the guys as the candy man. On account of all the mind altering goodies he carried in his candy bag, or candy satchel, or whatever he called the receptacle in which he hit away his stash of illicit drugs. Right now, however, the candy man was fast asleep. Slumped in his seat aboard the band's private plane, high above the deep dark abyss of the pacific, on route back to the land of the free and home of the brave. Just hours earlier, the candy man had bravely stood atop the windshield planes of Cuberpedes, the sun beating down and the sand flying in his face. Black t-shirt, jeans, big bell buckle, moves like jagger, lips sinking while looking like anyone's platonic ideal of a frontman, while a director shot footage for the music video for inaccessible latest single, kiss the dirt falling down the mountain. Now it was the aftermath of that shoot, and most everyone was asleep on the plane. Perhaps courtesy of some of the goodies in the candy man's
bag, but at some point Tim Ferris was shaken awake by a little burst of turbulence. 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 in a more nasty weather ahead. 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. 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? 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 sort of high carried over into the sessions for inaccesses next album. Their follow-up to their big breakthrough listened 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 Stone session, or so the French-speaking studio assistant assured them.
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 have been the last song recorded for listen like thieves, written explicitly to be a hit, and it did manage to become one of the inaccesses 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, 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 hold up with his brother John's apartment and squeeze out a hit song. As soon as he closed the door and the cabbie began to pull
away from the curb, Andrew heard it in his head. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, stop. He yelled to the cab driver, stop. I forgot something back in my place. The cabbie sighed, clearly annoyed. Andrew struggled to keep the riff in his head, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, and threw up with the door and tumbled out and ran upstairs to his apartment. Forty minutes later, he emerged, climbing into the backseat of the cab once more, now with a cassette tape in his hand, watching the cabbie of front shifting, clearly annoyed, but not too annoyed, honestly, because the meter was running in, well, time was money. Yes, Andrew thought, time was money. And with those 40 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 there are a lot of two weeks, they had their hit. Need you tonight became in excesses first and only number one song in America. The full album, Kick, was a certifiable sensation, a new sensation. A ubiquitous slab of funk rock that took over the world. Even the detractors like the Dean of American Rock Critics, Robert Kriska, called them silly middle brow hacks, which is what he wrote at the time. The printed word couldn't hurt in excess, 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 smash success of Need You Tonight, as in excess 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 as one would expect, but something far more sinister. Because his fame, notoriety, success, as all those things increase, so too does danger. But not in direct proportion. The danger increases tenfold. Hey guys, back in our part one episode on in excess, I briefly mentioned how the Gallagher brothers of Oasis used their speech and an award show to throw shade at Michael Hutchins and in excess, and how that affected Michael. How it really messed them up in a lot of ways. And what we didn't have time to get into was the aftermath of that dis 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 Discrease Land mini episode. To do that, you got to be a member of Discrease Land All Access, sign up through Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Go to disgraceampod.com to do just that. All right, back to our part two episode on in excess right now. In 1993, Rock n' Roll was in crisis. Bans that had dominated MTV in the airways for years, Bans like Guns n' Roses, Death Leopard, Metallica, even in excess, Bans 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 Bans began to feel less authentic or even worse, uncool. By the time Nirvana released In Yudero 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 star. He was the flip side of what Michael Hutchins so easily and effectively embodied. The guy preening and prowling on stage with a shirt unbuttoned in Rock n' Roll, as we knew it, was being reframed as nothing but myth in light of Kurt and Grunge's realism. Of course, it was all opposed, whether you were in a hair band or in a Seattle band, or whether or not your band still had a saxophone player as inaccessible. 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 n' 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 n' 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 and nostalgic and corporatized,
while hip-hop rushed in to fill the cultural void. But again, in 1993, Rock wasn't quite dead yet. 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 impossible, that dark night of the soul. Tonight it was a different hotel room, somewhere in Germany, where inaccessible performing is 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 in its follow-up, X, no matter. This tour was all about going back, back to basics, back to small clubs, and even smaller audiences. Back to the way things were before inaccessible became worldwide superstars. But there was no going back. These guys were
superstars. They've been the subjects of adulation coveted and obsessed over and despised all the same time. They were the recipients of shrieks and screams of lovesick confessions and strange correspondences. And one of those correspondences, sent to Michael Hutchins at his hotel, almost went down like this. Michael turned the envelope over in his hands. It was heavier than it seemed. An 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 to 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. 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 in excess 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. 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. He recalled that Michael was pretty even killed 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 Hutchins 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. And when Michael died, the danger died with him. And that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Discretelman. Hey guys, thanks for checking out this episode of Discretelman on InXS. 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 I don't access being from Australia,
but it can be a band or an artist from any country. Let me know 617-906638 voicemail and text at Discretelman.com on socials. Listen, if you're a Discretelman 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. You're going to unlock access to the entire Discretelman community exclusive and ad-free content. Alright, here comes some credits. Discretelman was created by yours truly and has produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at DiscretelmanPod.com. If you're listening as a Discretelman 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 DiscretelmanPod.com slash membership. Members can listen to every episode of Discretelman ad-free. Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at DiscretelmanPod. And on YouTube at youtube.com slash at DiscretelmanPod.
Rock'a Roll. He's a bad bad man. The comedy movie of Ben of the Year, Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice, coming only to Hulu and Disney Plus this Friday. Time to party. That's a great attitude. It's a time-travelag, ass kick egg, movie of that. You sound insane. Starring Vince Vaughn, James Marston, and Ace of Gonzalez. I thought you were a clown. Well, clones aren't real, don't you? And time machines are super bonded in reality. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice, rated R, written and directed by Ben David Grubinsky, only on Hulu and Hulu and Disney Plus for Bumble subscribers. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company, no matter how you do Game Day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in. With a full lineup of non-alcoholic beer styles, you can enjoy bold flavors all game-long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stuck the fridge for tip-off with a variety of non-alcoholic craft styles
available at your local grocery store or online at athleticbrewing.com. Near beer, fit for all times.
More episodes
More from DISGRACELAND

Bonus Episode: The Count Who Killed Jim Morrison?
DISGRACELAND

Foo Fighters: How Did Taylor Hawkins Die?
DISGRACELAND

Selena: Tejano, Deception, and the Death of the Madonna of Mexico
DISGRACELAND

Bonus Episode: Near Death Experiences and Unlikely Covers
DISGRACELAND