Michael Hutchence
Interview with Nick Egan
‘I realized the skateboard wasn’t some trendy accessory. This was part of his way of getting around and he was a natural.‘
July 2026
Not only did you design and illustrated the single ‘Devil Inside’ using skateboarding, the iconic ‘Kick’ album has a skateboard on its cover as well. Where did the skateboard inspiration come from?
Michael Hutchence was the first person I ever saw on a skateboard. I had been living in New York and it was popular among street kids like it was in California and Australia so I didn’t know much about it. I thought it was to be one of those trends that would be popular in Cities by the beach with sunny weather because surfers would also skateboard and skateboarders would surf. Anyway I flew down to Sydney to do the Kick cover and I was staying with Michael at his apartment in Kirribilli. The day after I arrived Michael wanted to know if I wanted to come with him to Rhino Studios in Sydney. I said yes but I didn’t really have a sense of how near and far things were. I had imagined that a car would be picking us up thats when he grabbed the vision psycho stick and said we were going to walk down to the ferry. Michael would get on the board and skate way ahead of me, then he’d wait on the corner for me to catch up. It was one of most striking moments seeing him in his leather Jacket collar turned up, his skinny black zipper pants, sunglasses, his hair blowing back in the wind. I realized the skateboard wasn’t some trendy accessory. This was part of his way of getting around and he was a natural. I remember getting on to the Ferry and people were nudging each other saying look its Michael Hutchence, you couldn’t get a better rock star, he was oblivious to the attention because that’s when I realized he was the most down to artist I’d ever met. He oozed charisma because he wasn’t trying to be cool. I remember when the ferry docked I knew be was going to go about 200 yards ahead of me and wait, I was on foot. At that moment I knew that had to be part of the cover and that here was one of the greatest rock stars around.
The board you guys used is one of the most iconic skateboard decks to date (Vision, Psycho Stick). Who picked it and where was it purchased?
So it wasn’t planned. Michael already had the board.
Is Michael on that skateboard on the cover?
Yes that his him on the cover and his legs on it. Wearing that exact same outfit, because I couldn’t imagine anything else. Same Doc Martens, same jacket and pants. So it wasn’t an idea. We didn’t think ‘Hey lets put Michael on a skateboard and dress him like a rockstar’. That’s who he was. I had a lot of fun with the Devil Inside cover because by then Kick had been out and was huge and so many kids were drawn to that skateboard. INXS really brought Skateboard culture to music and Skaters in LA and Australia were starting to became stars themselves. By then I have become interested in skateboard art. A lot of it was comic book or tattoo art style so that’s why I created that sketch of the devil. When the band played the song live, Tim Farriss would play the solo on his skateboard.
‘INXS really brought Skateboard culture to music and skaters in LA and Australia were starting to became stars themselves. ’
You mentioned Tim Farriss would ride his skateboard during his solo. Are you across how he got involved and which board he was riding?
Again I don’t think it was planned being from Sydney and the fact they were in their 20’s at that time meant they were aware of what was going on, because I saw the reaction the cover got about the skateboard. I thought I should cash in on that culture. So it was the first cover without the band on and it showed the band were in touch with the culture. I had studied a lot of the artwotk on boards around at the time and the thing I liked was it had a DIY quality about it, just like punk and the fanzines that evolved. So it was varied and not orchestrated by a certain brand, at least until Tony Hawk came on the scene and that kind of killed off that DIY feeling.
After Kick album came out, did you get any feedback from the skateboard industry/community about the cover? If so, what did they say?
I forgot to say regarding Devil Inside, I wanted to do an illustration that the skate community would think was cool and authentic and they related to the Devil anti establishment motif and they loved the humor so I think that resonated with skate kids even more than the Kick cover.