Source : Perth Now news
Gary Anderson may have been an “angry” boy but leaves this world as one of Australia’s greatest rockers, a youth advocate, media star and also an unsuccessful politician.
Angry Anderson died on Monday at the age of 79 surrounded by loved ones, and his loss will be deeply felt by all those who knew and loved him in Australia and overseas, according to a statement released by his family and Rose Tattoo Band.
“Angry was a devoted father, and much-loved band mate, friend, and member of the wider music and entertainment community,” they said.
The tough frontman of hard rock band Rose Tattoo since 1976, he managed to shift his image later in life, becoming an outspoken critic of refugees and then a media darling who grieved publicly for his murdered son Liam.
Gary “Angry” Anderson was born and grew up in the working class suburb of Coburg in Melbourne.
At home he was physically and emotionally abused by his father, with Anderson revealing on Andrew Denton’s TV show Interview that he seriously considered killing him.
“When he was around he was a very explosive person and he would just, as they say, go off at the drop of a hat,” he told ABC 702 in 2007.
His father’s rage, and then his own at the desperate situation, would come to define him and his music.
Anderson’s early years were marked by hardship; he struggled at school and ended up working in a clothing factory in his late teens.
His obsession with music saved him from the factory floor, with the future rocker playing in bands until he eventually fell in with Melbourne rock outfit Buster Brown.
The band, which included Phil Rudd of AC/DC fame, gained a notorious reputation in Melbourne for throwing raucous shows.
After two years on the pub circuit and one single, Buster Brown broke up and Angry decided to join Sydney rock group Rose Tattoo.
The band debuted on New Year’s Eve in 1976 and recorded their first singles, Bad Boy for Love and Snow Queen, in mid-1977.
In 1978 the band released one of their biggest hits, Rock’n’ Roll Outlaw, which charted internationally.
“We knew we had a great song, we knew instinctively,” Anderson told Richard Fidler in 2007.
In one of the band’s more controversial moments, Rose Tattoo were performing their smash hit on Australian TV show Countdown when Anderson kissed fellow bandmate Mick Cocks.
Rose Tattoo was banned from the ABC and outlawed from commercial radio.
“We laughed it off because we thought it was the best publicity we’d ever had,” Anderson told Fidler in 2007.
In the 1980s Rose Tattoo was on the precipice of international stardom after being picked up by a sub-label of Atlantic records, but the band walked away from the deal.
“We were going to become a product … and no one wanted to do that,” Anderson said.
In 1982, ahead of Rose Tattoo’s European tour, Anderson met Lindy Michael. The couple went on to have a daughter and three sons but later divorced.
The band took a break but reformed in the late ’90s. In between Anderson dedicated himself to charity work, his solo career and his kids.
“I was obsessed with the role (of fatherhood), and I felt then the real essence that is love,” he told Andrew Denton in 2019.
In 2007 Anderson started his foray into right-wing politics with controversial statements on Islam.
“The idea of any Muslim being photographed for a passport or a licence with one of those shrouds on – sorry, it just can’t happen,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
In 2012 he participated in SBS show Go Back to Where You Came From.
“I don’t accept the boat people at all … don’t tell me about the hard time you’ve had, the first thing you’ve shown me is – no respect – end of story,” he said at the beginning of the show.
After the show it was clear Anderson had changed his tune on asylum seekers when he appeared on ABC’s Q&A.
“I understand why they get on those boats, I just wish they didn’t have to,” he said.
Anderson also became an advocate for men’s health, having lost five of his Rose Tattoo band mates to cancer. In 2006 he appeared in a TV campaign promoting prostate cancer awareness.
In 2013 the rocker represented the National Party in the division of Throsby during the federal election.
He achieved 10 per cent of the vote, but failed to secure the seat.
In 2016 he ran for office again, this time in the Senate with anti-Muslim party Australian Liberty Alliance, but was unsuccessful.
At the end of 2018 Anderson’s son Liam was killed by his friend Matthew Flame after the two left a party on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Flame was in a state of drug and alcohol induced psychosis at the time of Liam’s death.
“The way he was raised is what got him into that situation. He was looking after somebody (Flame),” Anderson told Denton in 2019.
Denton asked Anderson about how he felt about his son’s death.
The rocker who was once defined by anger said that feeling had dissipated now and he was now “just profoundly sad”.
