BTTF# 30: Michael Hutchence's North Hollywood Home Before Becoming INXS' Lead Singer

By Marty McFly - Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 2 Comments

Map image courtesy Google Maps

Marty McFly here to take you on a special journey to explore the former home of INXS frontman, Michael Hutchence, located at 4950 Laurel Canyon Blvd North Hollywood (also referred to as Studio City). The Delorean has the required plutonium plus some random garbage in the Mr. Fusion reactor ready for this trip. The time circuits are set to sometime in 1976 and the flux capacitor is......fluxxing. The engine is running (not stalled this time) so we need to hurry. Hang on, as the ride can be a little bumpy as we travel back in time.

I am always amazed at the richness of SFV history when I learned through the fine folks at the Valley Film Festival that Michael Hutchence actually lived in North Hollywood for a very brief period during his teenage years where he attended North Hollywood High School. For those that dont know, Hutchence is an Australian native who lived most of his life in the land of down under. So to discover that there was a connection to the SFV, that completely blew me away and I was hungry for more details.

Hutchence was a founding member of the rock band, INXS, who grew to fame in the 80's becoming one of the better underrated bands of that era. Part of the success of INXS was Hutchence, who was a natural on the screen with his looks, voice, and persona.

But before he became rich and famous, he lived in NoHo for one year in 1976 as described by Michaelhutchenceinfo.com:

At the age of 15 Michael and his mother left for California. He has said that with the breakup of his parents' marriage he felt that she needed someone and it pained him to think of her alone. He and his mother joined his sister Tina, and her son Brent in a house in Studio City. While his mother continued her work in motion pictures, Michael enrolled into North Hollywood High where he found the student population and instructor/student relationship liberating. He was quite introspective and began to write poetry with a passion. He continued to visit his mother on sets and soaked in the down to earth basics of movie making which possibly helped him later on when it came time to make videos with INXS.

Image courtesy Historicaerials.com

Through careful research, I tracked the address of Hutchence's NoHo home to be a small apartment (shown above) located at 4950 Laurel Canyon that was demolished in 1984 and replaced with a condo complex (shown at the very top of this post). I was able to confirm this address through the owners of that apartment complex who easily remembered the Hutchence family thanks to the magic of Facebook (shown below).

After one year of living in NoHo, Hutchence returned to the motherland and founded INXS in 1977 with the rest being history selling over 45 million records worldwide. Unfortunately, like all great legendary musicians, Hutchence committed suicide by hanging on November 22, 1997 in a Sydney hotel. The news shocked the world as fans mourned his death by laying flowers in front of the hotel's entrance. Another fact that surprised me is that a portion of Hutchence's remains are buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills next to the Warner Bros. Studio lot which is obviously in the SFV.