INXS’s Tim Farriss Recovering After Severed Finger

Farriss’ hand was caught in an electric anchor winch and he spent a week at the Royal North Shore Hospital. He had two operations to reattach the finger.

Chris Murphy, Petrol Records’ founder and creative consultant for INXS, said, “Tim is now home from the hospital with him family and undergoing physiotherapy as part of the recovery process. He is getting the best possible care and we hope with time he will regain movement in his finger. This was a terrible accident, we are all here to support him.” Media reports said physiotherapy would last a year. Farriss emailed Murphy and the band, “I don’t know if I will be able to play properly again.”

INXS, which formed in Australia in 1977, sold more than 40 million albums globally as of May 2013. Half of these were in the United States, making them the third highest-selling Australian music act behind AC/DC and the Bee Gees.

Murphy reunited with the band in 2008 after a 10-year break and aggressively continued to work the brand. He licensed their songs globally to films, TV and ads, with plans for a movie and Broadway musical. He came up with the concept of the 2010 album Original Sin, where the band re-recorded past hits with guest singers such as Ben Harper and John Mayer.

Last year, the primetime, two-part, tell-all “Never Tear Us Apart” on the Seven Network, which Murphy executive-produced, enjoyed huge ratings. As a result, The Very Best Of returned to the top of the official ARIA chart and dragged back eight earlier albums to sell a further 340,000 units. Last year, INXS was the biggest-selling Australian act downunder.