By Luke Voogt
Only one person is allowed to call Angry Anderson by his given name, and it’s definitely not a telemarketer.
“They ring up and say ‘is this Gary?’ and I reply, ’Oh hey mum’ – whether they’re male or female,” the 70-year-old said.
“They go, ‘What?’ And I say, ’That’s what my mother calls me’.
“The only person that’s allowed to call me Gary is my mother.’”
The Australian rock icon spoke to the Indy ahead of Rose Tattoo’s long-awaited return to Geelong at the Gateway Hotel on 21 April.
The working-class city had always supported his band, Anderson explained.
“It was a big deal to make the trip down to Geelong, go to the beach and hang out for a weekend there,” he said.
“There are a couple of gigs that stand out – one at a pub that’s not there anymore. We did a couple of really memorable gigs at the uni.
“The other thing is how friendly the girlies are. The girls down there weren’t scared of us – they breed them tough down there.”
But Rose Tattoo is sporting a different line-up – with five members dying of cancer over the years and drummer Paul DeMarco going to jail for illegal gun possession in 2014.
“We were struggling with Paul’s dependencies,” Anderson said.
“Paul being in jail sort of knocked the wind out of me – I thought ‘it’s not working for me anymore.’”
But Anderson reformed the band last year, picking the people he “always wanted to play with“ for the Blood Brothers tour of Europe in June.
“By that time I’d sort of got over my melancholy at losing the last of the originals,” he said.
The new line-up features bassist Mark Evans (AC/DC), guitarist Bob Spencer (The Angels and Skyhooks), John Watson (Australian Crawl) and Dai Pritchard.
“I’ve known some of them for 40 years,” Anderson said.
“Johnnie Watson has been one of my favourite drummers since I first saw him play as a fresh-faced kid.”
Anderson was thrilled to see a mix of “old-guard faithful out the front wearing the t-shirts“ and young people inheriting the music from their parents.
“It’s the music that they’re identifying with and that’s the most rewarding thing.”
Even at 70 Anderson goes hard, although he admits he no longer does the “maniacal things” he used to.
“In the old days I’d do things like head butt stuff,” he said.
“At the end of each set we would play Suicide City – I used to put a mike cord around my neck and choke myself.”
Anderson was abused as a child and grew up in a rough neighbourhood, but he channelled that pain into his music.
“You can’t write a song like Scarred for Life without going through it,” he said.
“People come up to me and say ‘it’s as if you wrote that song for me or about me.’ And the simple answer is, yes, I did. There are so many of us out there who are survivors.”
