Michael Hutchence

  • Life
  • Work
    • Solo Album
    • Max Q
    • INXS Discography
    • Dogs in Space
    • Side Projects
    • Composing
    • Deliver Me
    • Projects
  • Memories
    • Family and Friends
    • Statements
    • Fans
    • Media
  • Memorial
    • Funeral
    • Ashes Ceremony
    • Memorial Service
  • 20
  • News
  • Guestbook
  • About

Personal Tributes

Nov 23, 1997

Now for something uplifting. Like most of you, I’ve been awake far longer than a body should. What sleep I did get this morning was fitful at best and fraught with horrible nightmares. It didn’t help that the sun had already come up (but hey, sleep baby sleep, now that the night is over.). I’ve cried all day, sobbed over videos, cursed over news reports, and spewed my emotions over fellow inxsaries.

I told some fellow mourners this morning that my life the past two days has been wonderful. I enjoyed watching Rosie O’Donnell live out her dream and interview Barbra Streisand. I went to watch my hockey team win a game with a whole group of friends and went out for food and drink afterward. My alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines, beat our biggest rival (those nasty little buckeyes – no offense to anyone here) to go onto the Rose bowl this morning. I was inducted into Sigma Tau Delta English honor Society this evening. And I actually was inspired enough this week to drive through a great part of my thesis. When looking at my life, it should be absolutely wonderful.

Yet at 1 am last night, it suddenly wasn’t.

For 24 hours now, I’ve been tortured, broken, guilty, angry, saddened, sobbing, regretful and any other emotion you’d like to add in.

But it occurred to me that I have so many things in my life right now, so many good things – not just the things I mentioned above, but my husband, my family, my silly little dog and stuck up cat. And I realized that I wasn’t being true to what I believed.

Life needs to be lived. It needs to be celebrated. It needs to be worshipped.

So that’s what I did. After the induction tonight, I went to a friend’s party. I took a candle with me and at midnight, I lit it and said a prayer for Michael, his family, his friends and his fans. When the moon rose, I drank a toast to him. And in between, I danced. I danced like there was no tomorrow. I danced, and laughed and sang and I dedicated the whole evening to Hutch. And even though there are still a few tears in my eyes, a few regrets in my heart, I feel so much better.

So, what I’d like to suggest to everyone. Make a list of everything that’s right in your life at the moment, tap into that perfect happiness and dedicate it to Michael. Turn on any song that will get your feet moving and dance with abandon. Cry if you want to but keep dancing – sing your lungs out and give all that energy back to him. If you feel silly doing it by yourself, then have a party – a great big rip-roaring party and dance till you’re sweaty and tired. Say a prayer, light a candle, bark at the moon, set a place for him at dinner tomorrow or whatever it is you believe in. We can’t be at the funeral to say good bye, so make your own ceremony.

Just love him, remember him and honour him. We can do no more.

Stazya

“Love and Peace”
— Michael Hutchence


Dec 1, 1997

Last Wednesday before I left work for the four-day holiday (govt. worker — please, no jokes!) I posted to the list that since I didn’t have internet access at home, I’d be thinking of everyone at the appointed hour.

There I was in my kitchen, peeling over 12 lbs. of apples and playing WTWYA on my CD player, completely caught up in what I was doing, when I got this overwhelming feeling that I wasn’t alone, even tho’ my daughter was in bed fast asleep. I looked at the clock, and sure enough, it was exactly 9:30 p.m. — the time that everyone was gathering to pay tribute to Hutch.

Say what you want, but after that, I honestly believe that all of us that loved him and all the members of INXS, are truly spiritually linked.

~*~ Donna ~*~


Dec 3, 1997
Hi Stazya! How are you doing? Hope things are going better this week, I cannot say the same ’cause I’m having a fall.

Well, last Thursday the 27th of November is a day I will never forget… First of all I have to say that the difference between Spain and Sydney is ten hours, so 14:30pm in Sydney is 4:30am here…an untimely hour, but that wasn’t a problem for me, the problem was that I don’t have my own computer and my access to internet and e-mail is because of the University account… so in the moment where I needed my inxs-list friends more I was all alone, that’s why I asked you to think about me at that time in the chats, do you remember?. Well this didn’t stop me because our gorgeous Michael deserved this special celebration from his real fans. That’s why about 2:30am I searched for some Michael pictures then I put them on a shelf and lit two white candles…said a little prayer for Michael (I don’t believe in religion, I just believe in Michael) and kissed his pictures wishing him a good travel. Then I tried to have some sleep. The candles burnt during all the night…

A curious thing…well I usually sleep in one go, but that night, about 4:30 I wake up…looked at the candles and felt some kind of peace…maybe was a coincidence, maybe was the positive energy from all you in the chats, or maybe was Michael telling me “See you in Heaven…”

Well this is my story…a sad one told many times 😉

Hope to hear from you.

Take care and don’t change

Kisses
Susana.


Dec 3, 1997

To those who also love Michael as much as I do, He meant the world to me, I was sitting in my kitchen, at the bar listening to his beautiful voice, wiping out a box of tissues. I never cried so much and so hard in all my life. My heart is shattered. I just saw him two months ago. I had front row, he looked into my eyes and he touched me with his hand. I never saw anyone so beautiful in my entire life. I’m still crying and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. When he died, he took me with him, dedicated to the end.

Peace&Love,
Sharon


Dec 12, 1997

Please forgive me if this gets a bit long, there’s just so much I want to say.

While I was in high school in the 80’s I heard INXS, but I was so busy with Big Band music, playing violin, and collecting the Beatles, I never paid much attention. This past August I saw some of INXS’s Hard Rock Live set during VH-1’s eight days of 80’s and decided that I had to see them live. I found out about their Cleveland concert just two days beforehand (I was sure I’d missed them) and immediately got a ticket. For two hours, a few thousand other fans and I stood in the rain entranced by the band and by Michael.

After finding out the rest of the tour dates/locations because I wanted to send Michael a card and the poem I’d written, I decided to go to another of their shows. I got a ticket for the Pittsburgh show at the end of September (the last show of the tour). At the show, while Amy Grant was failing to amuse the audience, I wandered off to see if I could find Michael. He was in the radio sponsors’ tent by the concession stands and to get backstage had to pass behind some of the concession stands and across a small open area. I called his name and he turned to me and smiled before being hustled off by his bodyguard.

When I heard that Michael was dead I was too shocked even to cry. For the first few days I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t accept that he was gone. I had spent so much time thinking that maybe someday I would get a chance to meet him, I still can’t feel that it’s real. I started getting scared too because I found that I couldn’t listen to music anymore. Except for INXS music, everything I’d loved just made me hurt to listen to it. The music is slowly coming back, though much of it brings tears to my eyes.

I’ve had a hard time deciding which poems to include with this letter. Of the many that Michael has inspired (all of which will be in my next book), I’ve selected the one I wrote after the Cleveland concert, The New Messiah, and the one I wrote after hearing of Michael’s death, Percy’s Cloud.

Please feel free to post all or part of this letter and the poetry (provided my copyright appears with the poetry). Thanks for reading all this and for keeping Michael’s memory alive.

Jennifer E. Gladis


Dec 18, 1997

Hello, my name is Angela and I’m sending this from London, Ontario, Canada.

I basically grew up with INXS so when I heard of the death of Michael, I felt as if I had lost a family member or close friend. It has been rather hard for me because nobody around me is a big fan so it was hard for them to share in my grief. For the past couple weeks I have been wondering why this is making me so upset but it makes me feel better to know that I’m not the only one who’s upset and there are other people who are going through the same pain. You wanted to know what people were doing at the time of the funeral. Well I tried to find coverage on it and couldn’t but I’ve been told that it may have been shown on CNN. That was one thing that was making me very angry, is that there didn’t seem to be that much coverage on his death or maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right places. I have a friend who’s in Australia right now and she said they watched the funeral over there and it was very sad. She also sent me some magazines from there because she knows what a big fan I am. I really wish that I had seen the funeral because I don’t feel that I really had a time to mourn his loss and it still doesn’t seem real until you actually go through some kind of ceremony. I just feel like I really haven’t said good-bye to him. If you know of anyone who may be broadcasting it again or if there happens to be a video of it, I would really appreciate it if you could contact me. I know how horrible I feel about this loss and I can’t imagine the pain and suffering his family and friends are going through, and to know that his daughter will never really know what a wonderful man he was.

Thank you
Angela

Letter to Michael

by Karen Lobb

Dear Michael

Nearly 12 months have passed and still, I can’t help but feel it’s all been some horrible mistake. Surely they got it wrong? Can’t be you, not you.. I don’t think it was meant to be that way, and I don’t think you did either – not in a rational moment, never in your wildest dreams. A crazy set of disjointed, seemingly minor circumstances that collided together when there was no one to help you see a way out. It seems impossible to let go of the “whys” and “what ifs”.

In my worse moments, I feel you must be crying a bucket of tears a day to see what’s going on down here.. Your family in disarray, Paula crazy with grief, losing “all your beautiful girls”, getting caught up with some loser in an effort to drive away the numbness she must feel, and Tiger, growing away from the last day she ever saw you, every day.. Isn’t it obvious that they’re all trying to deal with the unimaginable? A task too great for most of us? And the ever ready microphones and cameras, waiting to catch the odd tactless word or gesture, and send it like an arrow in tomorrow’s headlines right into the hearts of your other loved ones, dividing them when really all that will get them (and us) through is to hold on together.

My littlest boy was born on your birthday. He’s just six months younger than Tiger, and so often I look at him and think, how could you bear to miss out on this, you’ll never know that about Tiger, how much they change from week to week. And the weeks keep adding up, all that time without your voice, your hug, your kiss. I guess in a too-short 16 months you did an awful lot of loving, maybe enough to last her a lifetime. She’s only got to look at those photos of the two of you together, when you were laughing just like any love-struck-silly dad, to know how much you cared about her. I hope you can see Tiger, watch over her. She’s just a little kid now, but I hope she finds the answers easy when she’s old enough to start wondering.

I guess it’s up to your family, and friends, and maybe even us in a small way. We’ve GOT to get over what’s happened, and start celebrating what you’ve left to us. Your music. Wow, what a legacy. Your image. Sexy, soulful, intelligent. Not my type at all if you look at my real-life choices, but I could never resist my guilty obsession! And your friends, family, the ones you’ve touched, they’re the lucky ones, even though their pain must be unbearable. They’ll spend their lives remembering moments with you, that probably seemed so inconsequential at the time, now cause for a smile or tear or tingle.

It’s no doubt all sentimental mush – but it IS time to dust off those records I’ve been too heartsore to play. I want to see your name again in bookstores and music shops when the news is good. I don’t want everything you’ve achieved, felt important, expressed so well, to be buried too. I’m just a fan, but you spent a lot of your adult life proving we meant something to you. We will always, always miss you, but if we hold you close in our hearts and minds, and learn to laugh and sing as well as cry over you, then you won’t ever truly leave us.

As they say, Michael, love and peace.

Karen Lobb, Australia, November 1998

Poems

Michael. I’m truly sorry
so soon you had to go
But today you are walking
on streets of pure gold.
You had done your best,
while here on this earth,
Jesus took you home with him,
for a much greater work.

You left a real nice mansion
in Southern France.
Only to gain a new one,
across the Crystal Sea.
I know you thrilled the Angels
when you sailed through the gates,
But there’s no one here on earth,
to ever take your place,

Because he loved you so,
God softly took you home,
So you could keep on singing,
around his Golden-Throne.
But down here on this earth,
you’ll for ever live on
And we’ll keep on playing,
your beautiful songs.

© Fabienne, France


The New Messiah

Guiding us
with the roll of your head,
the fluid sidle of your hips.
Eyes closed, smirk in place,
you move us with the slightest gesture.

Allowing us to cover you
with our touches,
with the warmth of our adoration.
Granting us pleasure
with the touch of your hand.
Encouraging our love
with your appreciation.

You stage dive
into a sea of your disciples.
You anoint us
and we swear to spread the word.

Shedding the trappings of society
you keep us screaming for more
and more and more and more
and . . . GOD . . .
there can never be enough!

Sleepless nights are our future
as we wish and hope and dream,
and wait.
We wait,
knowing there will be more.

Suffused with new life
we must return to Monday,
but with a secret wisdom.
Knowledge that after dark lies light,
the light of our new messiah.

© Jennifer E. Gladis, 8-25-97


Percy’s Cloud
On the death of Michael Hutchence /
Nov. 22, 1997

you think I am gone,
but I am with you forever
in every passionate rainbow,
in all that is music

there is life
there is thought
there is art

embrace all that is beautiful,
for it is holy
my spirit, my soul is in every memory
in every idea

One world, one heart
where pain is forgotten,
hope is unnecessary,
and love awaits

give yourself to dance
for therein lies the secret
feel the energy in every cell
and pray it never stops

I give myself to you,
for the saving of your souls
take my gift and run
run to the ends of time
then start all over again

I promise I’ll see you soon
maybe in your eyes,
maybe in your heart,
forever in your dreams

© Jennifer E. Gladis, 11-22-97


Cut the red roses down
Scream without a sound
Walking all around
Looking for a ground
Keep your heart alive
Not just for today
Far from this room
Looking for your way

We all know
Now you¥re free
Singing with angels
Ashes against the wind

© Michael Wolfgang, November 22, 1999


Spread your wings and glide,
To highest possible peak,
You are one of the children now,
Free from harm,
Free from all that is bad,
Ready to take that flight,
For the next adventure,
Is yet to come,
Where you will be joined,
By angels of the son,
Be careful on this journey,
You have new things to see,
New things to venture,
This may scare you some,
I think that you will see,
The freedom that awaits you,
Through the golden gates of clear,
Take these messages of sorrow,
And turn them into peace,
You are now the shining star,
For all of us too see,
The star that we will wish upon,
On the nights that we feel alone,
The nights that we will dream of you,
To share and to hold in our hearts,
Take to the sky *Michael*,
It is your turn to shine,
Shine above the rest,
You were the only one,
The one that knew you best,
The others will see you again,
In time and in space,
Giving us such great reward,
We will never forget your face,
The time that you gave us your all,
Was the best that we ever embraced,
We were truly amased and blessed,
To of known you in this place,
In our minds and soul’s,
We’ll remember your grace,
Take to the sky *Michael*,
We’ll meet again in time,
Until then my sweet,
I toast and drink to you,
With these tears of mine…….

*We miss you Michael*

© Shannon, Phoenix, Az.


A Poem for Michael and Everyone…

Felt the world stop spinning on the day you died,
And I cried a million tears from my saddened eyes,
The sky that night seemed darker, much more still,
As a million stars went out, they just lost their will.

I thought what must have been on your mind,
How and why had the world be so rough and unkind?
But you were done with shouting, had no voice to shout,
So sad to think this was your only way out.

Thousands who loved you could just not conceive,
Why you felt the burning desire to leave,
I couldn’t shake it or lose it from my head,
For the tears and grieving all over the world now you are dead.

But time creeps on slowly and wounds do heal,
And once again broken hearts begin to feel,
The joy you gave us, your smile, your fun,
And those words filled with warmth like the summer sun.

I felt the earth start spinning once again,
Can listen to your laughter, a sound like rain,
The sky tonight looks brighter, much more still,
As a millions stars shine for you with all of their will.

© Caz, Woking, Surrey, UK

Websites

Official INXS Website

Tina Hutchence’s Website

An Excess of INXS

Deirdre’s A Time for Reflection

El Mundo Latino de INXS

  • Family and Friends
  • Statements
  • Fans
  • Media

Search

The Team

Michael Hutchence's Official Memorial is graciously brought to you by Susie Hutchence, Jacqueline Ferrari, Mario Ferrari, and Ian Patterson.

Thank you

We wish to acknowledge the kindly contributions to Michael's site by INXS, CIL, N. Kothari, R. Simpkins, and everyone else who have contributed. We especially send our gratitude to all of Michael's friends and fans around the World who have contributed so much through caring e-mails and the Guestbook.

Get in touch

We would love to hear from you. Please feel free to send us feedback, thoughts, suggestions or questions.
feedback@michaelhutchence.org

Copyright © 1999–2025 · MICHAEL HUTCHENCE MEMORIAL