U2's Adam Clayton: How The Shock Death Of Michael Hutchence Helped Him Clean Up His Act

U2's Adam Clayton has revealed publicly that the sudden, tragic death of INXS's Michael Hutchence back in 1997 was a big driver in his push to clean up his act and fly straight.

In an interview with Irish radio station RTE 2FM, Clayton spoke about the 20th anniversary of their huge album All You Can't Leave Behind, their first album recorded after the death of their mate Hutch.

He told host Tracy Clifford how Hutchence's death triggered him to look at his lifestyle and, in particular, his drinking. Indeed, Clayton revealed that on the album All You Can't Leave Behind, he recorded it completely sober.

“It was a new departure. It was the first time I think I’d recorded a record completely stone-cold sober, and to a degree, I was white-knuckling it. The songs really do mean something coming from that period in my life. Particularly in the light of Michael Hutchence’s story, I really feel like I was one of the lucky ones.”

Clayton added, “On Stuck in A Moment, I think most people know this is about our friend Michael Hutchence, the singer in INXS, he was someone who we used to always see in the summers. I suppose it can happen to anyone, one small mistake, and his life started to veer off in a direction that was somewhat out of control. I don’t think any of us realised how alone and how vulnerable he was.”

“He lost his life right before an INXS tour, and as fellow musicians and minstrels and performers, that cut very deep in us and I suppose it made us feel very grateful that in our band, it really is the four of us that look out for each other.”

“I think what it underlined is that very often, you just don’t know what’s happening in people’s lives. If there’s anyone listening to this going through something similar, and I know these times are very difficult, if you can reach out to someone, tell them what’s going on. If you can just not go through it on your own, there are people out there to help.”

Of course, we're approaching Hutchence's anniversary, marking yet another year without the INXS legend in this world. In case you missed it, our sister station announced INXS as the Aussie G.O.A.T. last week, as voted by the Triple M listeners.

Triple M's Dangerous Dave asked INXS's Tim Farriss and Kirk Pengilly what Hutch would have thought of the news.

LISTEN:

As much as the loss of Hutchence still no doubt hurts, it's great to see that Adam Clayton did something about his lifestyle. Kudos to you, Mr Clayton.