Remembering Angry Anderson: rock n' roll animal and incurable romantic
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Who was Angry Anderson and what shaped his early life and values?
ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Hi there. I'm Jen Leak, one of the producers with Conversations. Today we're bringing you Richard Feidler's interview with Angry Anderson, which was recorded with him in 2007 when the band was getting ready to tour Russia.
My guest for you today is Angry Anderson. Now, I've got vivid memories of watching this man perform on Countdown with his band Rose Tattoo. Yes, they looked wild, a bit dangerous and a bit thrilling. And I remember seeing Angry Anderson, very short, covered in tattoos, reflecto sunglasses, and I thought it was perhaps the toughest thing I had ever seen on Australian television.
Or are likely to see, I don't know.
Looking back on those clips today, though, you can sort of see how evident... Two things are evident. One, the musicianship, and two, that the band look like they're laughing so much they can hardly stop laughing. These days we think of Agri Anderson as an activist for kids' charities and a kind of emblem of modern fatherhood as well, and he's got an Order of Australia medal for all his good work. And the past couple of years, though, have been challenging for Angry Anderson. He's lost his bandmate, Pete Wells, and he's still a single dad bringing up teenagers. But now in his 60th year, Rose Tattoo are coming together once again for an international tour. Angry Anderson, raging rock and roll animal, incurable romantic, loyal dad, friend of the little guy.
Welcome to the Conversation Hour. Thank you very much. Angry, your mum's been a big thing in your life. You took her as your date to the 2006 ARIA Awards when Rose Tattoo
were introduced to the
Hall of Fame. Tell me about your mum.
Well, it took her, Mick and I decided to actually take our mums because we're both Melbourne boys. Our mums have never seen the band play. Not that they'd have any interest in seeing the band play. Very supportive, both very supportive of our careers in inverted commas. But they'd never seen the band play except on television. And that was enough sort of basically because we are alluding to those countdown visions. And, you know, they sort of, mum's sort of, you know, like their main influence in any boy's life. They are, indisputably. And unless, of course, you've had a mum in absentee, but sadly that's too common too. But my mum was probably responsible largely for the values that I have now, the values that I even live my life by.
What are
they? What are those values?
Well... Mum used to say things to me like, you know, they're really, really cliche things. She'd say things like, you know, honesty is the best policy. Always think good of people before you think bad. It's all too easy to find faults in people. Why don't you try and look for the positive things? All those wonderfully really... in reinforcing things about, because what they do is that they allow us to find the good and or the worthwhile in any one, let alone any situation, before we discover all too readily or too quickly that there, you know, of course there is the balancing negativity, if you like, or the downside of any situation. But you see, I've found, and this is very, very true, and it's a philosophy or a way of life that I pass on to my kids and anyone else that will listen, is that if you discover the negativity first, it's very difficult then to find the positive.
If you find the positive first or recognize the positive first, initially, first, then you can deal with the negativity. But anyway, it was a way of saying to our mums, thanks, mums, for all that wonderful support. Thanks for putting up with the embarrassment, particularly in those early years, like, oh, your boy's in Rose Tad. Who is he, Rosemary? Yes, he is. Oh. And they say that, you know, and you can imagine the tone in their voice, like, poor woman. Yeah, poor woman.
Yeah, really. And there you are. You
should be saying it
at the Arias.
Yeah, it was a way of sort of saying thanks, Mum, and a way of saying too that... It's like when acceptance speeches, you know, like you want to acknowledge, you know, the most important people in your life.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who was Angry Anderson and what shaped his early life and values?
0:00–6:41
2
How did Angry’s relationship with his mother influence his outlook on honesty and positivity?
6:41–12:25
3
What impact did his abusive father have on Angry’s childhood and later attitudes toward parenting?
12:25–18:06
4
When did music become a central part of Angry’s life and which early artists inspired him?
18:06–23:46
5
How did the Melbourne ‘Sharpies’ sub‑culture and early bands lead to the formation of Rose Tattoo?
23:46–29:38
6
What led to Angry Anderson’s infamous Countdown kiss and the resulting ban?
29:38–35:16
7
How did becoming a father change Angry’s priorities and his view of rock‑star life?
35:16–40:32
8
What is Angry Anderson’s lasting legacy in Australian rock, charity work, and modern fatherhood?
40:32–47:02
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Conversations
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