Michael Hutchence’s grandnephew Ben, pictured with his grandmother Tina, never got to meet the rock superstar
Tina Hutchence doesn’t have to look far to see physical reminders of her beloved brother Michael.
Her grandson Ben is a lookalike for the late INXS lead singer, down to the brooding eyes and distinctive curly hair.
‘The curls,’ Tina says. ‘He’s the only one in the family with those curls.’
The 16-year-old Californian was not born when his granduncle Michael was found dead in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Double Bay in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on November 22, 1997.
But the family ties and his uncanny resemblance to the rock god mean he will forever be linked to one of popular music’s most charismatic front men.
US-based Tina is in Australia on the publicity trail for her new book Michael: My Brother, Lost Boy of INXS and has been asked about the similarities between her grandson and sibling.
Michael Hutchence (left) and his sister Tina’s grandson Ben (right) have a strong resemblance. Tina, who has written a book about her brother, says no one else in her family has curly hair
Daily Mail Australia revealed this week that Michael Hutchence’s daughter Tiger Lily has been in a relationship with former Tame Impala band member Nicholas Allbrook for more than a year
‘He’ll occasionally see a photograph – I’ve had a lot out lately for the book and so forth – and he’ll say “Hey, that looks like me”,’ she told Channel 10’s The Project.
‘He sees it now.’
Tina, who is close to Ben, told Channel 7’s The Morning show that her daughter Erin’s boy was also into music – ‘but if you ask him, he’ll say rap.’
Asked what Ben thought of Michael’s music, the 70-year-old said: ‘He likes it. It’s just, you know, it’s kinda old time.’
This is the second book Tina has written about her brother – the first was Just A Man: The Real Story of Michael Hutchence, co-authored with their mother Patricia Glassop and released in 2001.
Tina, who was 12 years older than Michael, said her latest book benefited from new interviews and covered personal matters she had not discussed with her mother, who has since died.
In particular it deals with the emotional stress Michael was under at the time of his death aged 37, which was deemed by a coroner to have been suicide.
The later Michael Hutchence (left) was a prolific book reader like his grandnephew Ben (right)
Tina Hutchence’s schoolboy grandson Ben poses with money he earnt from a a summer job
A post-mortem examination found alcohol, cocaine, codeine, Prozac, Valium and other prescribed benzodiazepines in Michael’s urine and blood.
Tina’s book, written with rock journalist Jen Jewel Brown, recounts Michael’s depressed state at the time, focusing on the acquired brain injury Michael suffered after his skull was fractured in a dispute with a taxi driver in Denmark in 1992.
It also details Michael’s drug use and his stormy relationship with television presenter and fellow user Paula Yates, the mother of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, his only child.
Daily Mail Australia revealed this week that Tiger Lily has been in a relationship with former Tame Impala band member Nicholas Allbrook, 30, for more than a year.
Yates had three older daughters with Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, with whom she was in a bitter custody dispute before Michael died.
Michael had been hoping Yates would visit Australia with 16-month-old Tiger Lily and two of her three daughters with Geldof ahead of the last leg of an INXS world tour.
In the hours before Michael’s death he had spoken by telephone to Yates, and to Geldof. That morning he learnt Yates and the children would not be coming out.
Tina Hutchence (right) with her grandson Ben. ‘He’ll occasionally see a photograph – I’ve had a lot out lately for the book and so forth – and he’ll say “Hey, that looks like me”,’ she says
Tina Hutchence says her grandson Ben (right) prefers rap music to the hits of her rock star brother Michael (left) with INXS. ‘He likes it. It’s just, you know, it’s kinda old time,’ she says
Tina writes that she believes her younger brother decided in his hotel that morning that he had lost control of his life.
‘Maybe, confused and deranged by fatigue, alcohol and other drugs, the mood swings, frustration, cognitive impairments and anxiety of even small things brought on by his traumatic brain injury, he simply lost his mind.’
Michael: My Brother, Lost Boy of INXS is by Tina Hutchence and Jen Jewel Brown $32.99
‘We will never know exactly how many phone calls he received and what was said in them.
‘But it is obvious that Michael was pushed beyond his limit.
‘He was already a man on a ledge. Many people were aware of this and the police statements confirm it.
‘He had been mixing both prescription and illegal drugs for at least two years and, legal or not, drugs and alcohol distort the mind.
‘His perception of his life and future that morning was contorted beyond his capacity to handle it.’
Shortly after Michael’s death, Geldof gained custody of his children with Yates, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie.
Yates died of an accidental heroin overdose aged 41 in 2000. Geldog became legal guardian of Tiger Lily and later legally adopted her.
Peaches Geldof died of a heroin overdose aged 25 in 2014.
Ben has never met Tiger Lily and despite repeated attempts Tina has not been able to see her niece, now 22, since she was a child.
Michael: My Brother, Lost Boy of INXS by Tina Hutchence with Jen Jewel Brown is available now. $32.99.
Michael Hutchence, pictured at Wembley Stadium in 1991, was an Australian rock superstar