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The Day I Auditioned for Rock Star INXS and Got a Standing Ovation

In 2001, Rock Star hit theaters with Mark Wahlberg playing a tribute band singer who lands the gig of a lifetime fronting a major metal act. It’s a fantasy a lot of musicians carry around quietly. What most people don’t know is that four years later, I nearly lived a version of it. Instead of a fictional band called Steel Dragon, it was INXS.

A Personal Connection to the Story

I came to Rock Star through a friend. Jeff Scott Soto has been mentioned on this blog more than once. He voiced the singing parts of the original Steel Dragon frontman and appears on several tracks on the soundtrack alongside a stellar roster of ’80s and ’90s metal vocalists. I own the film partly because of Jeff, and partly because the fantasy it depicts is one I understand firsthand.

Jeff himself later lived a real version of that story when he fronted Journey for a couple of tours. It happens. And in 2005, it almost happened to me.

The Call I Wasn’t Expecting

Before this blog launched, word got out that producers were casting Rock Star: INXS, the CBS reality series where the band would find their next lead singer through a live competition. A handful of musical friends suggested I throw in an audition tape. I passed. I didn’t think I was the right fit.

Then Deirdre called.

She had ties to the show’s producers, and they’d asked her point-blank: who do you know that has the range of Michael Hutchence, can write songs, and would be a credible match for INXS? She told me I was the only name that came to mind.

Would I come in for a private audition?

I told her: if I don’t have to send a tape and they’re asking for me directly, sure.

She was happy. We hung up. Thirty-five minutes later, a producer’s assistant called with the details.

Two Rules. One Address.

The instructions were specific. First: you cannot perform an INXS song. No problem. I had plenty of my own material. Second: you cannot dress like Michael Hutchence. Also fine. I’ve never been interested in being anyone but myself.

The address they gave me was the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset.

I thought that was a strange venue for a private audition, but I didn’t push back. I had a recording session elsewhere in LA starting at 2:30, so I figured thirty to forty-five minutes would cover it. I confirmed the 1:30 p.m. slot and moved on.

The Line That Wasn’t in the Briefing

When I pulled up to the Whisky the next day, I found a line that stretched out the front door, east along Sunset, around the building, and north up the side street (N Clark St). Whatever they’d described to me as a private audition, this was clearly also a full-scale cattle call.

I found parking right out front, grabbed my guitar, and walked to the door. I told the guy at the entrance I was there for a private audition at 1:30. He looked at me like I’d said something in a foreign language and told me to get in line.

I kept it short: “You guys called me. If you don’t want me here, I have a recording session to get to.”

He conferred with someone behind the door. A minute later, a higher-up came out holding a packet with my name on it. He told me to read it, sign it, and come back.

Blacking Out the Contract on the Curb

I stepped out to the curb and opened the packet in front of a hundred or so musicians waiting in line for their shot. When I read through it, I found several clauses I wasn’t willing to agree to. I blacked them out, initialed the redactions, signed it, and walked back to the door.

The higher-up came out, took the packet, and waved me inside.

Inside, the line wrapped around the room with another twenty-five or so people already waiting. The person on stage at that moment clearly hadn’t received the same rules I had. He was dressed like Michael Hutchence. He was performing an INXS song. He appeared to be doing the choreography from the song’s music video. I couldn’t understand it. But there it was.

Waiting in the Wings with Kat Parsons

While I waited, I ended up standing next to a musician I knew: Kat Parsons. She was as baffled by the Hutchence impersonator as I was. She’d been given the same two rules I had. We caught up while the line moved, and then her turn came. She stepped up, played one of her own songs, and gave a solid performance.

Then they called my name.

The Audition

As I walked toward the stage, a stagehand was already adjusting the mic stand. I’m much taller than Kat, and he could see that. By the time I got there, the mic was sitting at Adam’s apple height. I went to fix it and the stagehand practically lunged at me. Touching the mic stand was apparently off-limits for anyone auditioning. So I waited while he corrected it.

Once the mic was where it needed to be, the producer asked me a few questions. I answered them straight, got some laughs, and felt the room settle into something easy. Then they asked me to play.

I’d chosen All the Things. It felt right for what they were looking for. I played the song and left everything I had on that stage.

When I finished, the room stood up.

That’s not something I say lightly. The people who’d auditioned before me had gotten polite applause at best. Kat had gotten some real cheers. But this was a full standing ovation, from the waiting musicians, from the room, from the film crew, and from upstairs, where I could see members of INXS watching from the balcony. They were on their feet too.

I was thanked for my time. I packed up and left for my recording session.

The Call That Never Came

I never heard from them again.

It took about a year before I understood why. But that’s a story for another time.

What I’ll say is this: the Rock Star fantasy cuts both ways. Sometimes you get the call. Sometimes you give the performance of your life in front of the actual band, get a standing ovation, and still go home without an answer. That’s the music business, and it’s also what makes stories like this worth telling.

There’s something timeless about the archetype. Judas Priest found Tim “Ripper” Owens singing in a tribute band. Jeff fronted Journey. A reality show put Rock Star: INXS on prime-time television. The idea of the right singer finding the right band at the right moment keeps happening. Just not always the way you’d script it.