Did you think you'd still be around more than 20 years after you started out?
The early years were pretty funny. They were crazy. The little gig we did last night, playing in the pub, we did that for a good three or four years, constantly. We cut our teeth in those environments. You don't lose that very easily. You'd think it would wear off but it doesn't really.

Do you have one favourite gig?
I get favourite tours. I'm quite enjoying this one actually. There's something about this tour. A lot of good things have been happening. On the Oi awards that we did in Mexico city - it's their equivalent of the Grammys - there were 20 million people watching on television and 12,000 people sitting there. Bon Jovi was on the show as well. As we were about to go on my brother Jon got food poisoning and he couldn't play. He was vomiting on the side of the stage and we thought we'll give him some medicine and we kept thinking , what are we going to do because it's live television and we can't come back tomorrow. Eventually, one of the guys in our road crew said: "I'll do it." He went off to get a hat, but then we couldn't find any drumsticks. So I'm panicking cos it's ten seconds till the curtain lifts and the band are yelling at each other...Next minute the drum guys comes back, I jump on the keyboards and about ten seconds later the curtain goes up - and no one knows any different! We started off the tour in New York and did a gig for the Australian Consulate in New York who were putting a benefit for the victims of the Bali bomb. And that was a great show in the Hammerstein Balroom, Russell Crowe and a few other people came down...

So what's happened since Michael's death?
After Michael died we didn't know quite what we were for a while because for so much of our career he was the spokesman, his personality, so much was him. And I'm assuming the public got used to his personality, his incredible talent, and we did too. It was really tough when he was no longer there. We had to look at ourselves and say, what are we? Are we the help or are we INXS or who are we? I think it's good that we didn't rush back into until we'd talked about it a lot and thought about it a lot. It wasn't until a friend of ours, Jimmy Barnes - who plays in a band called Cold Chisel - said to us: "Why don't you play?" So they had a big stadium show to celebrate a big Australian record company and we got up and played with Jimmy and that was OK. Then we got asked by the Australian Government to open the Sydney Stadium which had just been built for the forthcoming Olympics in 2000. There's a bit of a short list in Australia for bands who can open stadiums, you know! So they said: "Will you guys do it?" And we thought we'll need to get a new frontman because Jimmy does his own thing. We thought about it, approached Terrence Trent D'erby and he said he'd love to do it so he came out from Los Angeles.

So what do you miss most about Michael?
I just miss my friend, you know. I think that a lot of the peripheral interest in it has disappeared and you're left with the reality that you lost a good mate. And, in showbiz terms, a real talent and a great singer and he and I wrote hundreds of songs together so I really miss that too. But, after the thing with Terrence, a couple of the guys in the group, Jon [Farriss] and Kirk [Pengilly], knew Jon Stevens and we just thought maybe we can do a pub gig and it went great. Poor Jon; he was given two days to learn 25 songs and he just came on the stage and did it. I just thought, that's impressive. We've been building up our level of work again in dribs and drabs. We didn't rush out two weeks after Michael died thinking, off we go...

So what's next for INXS?
The future is a new record and we're all writing and working towards that. The working title is 'The Green Thing'. I don't really know where or when it's going to happen, we're trying to figure it out at the moment. The good thing is that the material is beginning to form. We do a bigger tour in America in the summer as well...

Finally, what are you most proud of and what moment would you most like to sweep under the carpet?
I'd probably say, for sweeping under the carpet, we made three albums with Chris Thomas as a producer which were our biggest catalogue albums. Then we decided, as a lot of bands do, that we were invincible and didn't need any help. That following album did really well in Europe but didn't do so well elsewhere, although it did do well here. Though in terms of success in the United States it didn't do that well. That's what I'd get rid of, that point in our career. Most positive achievements would have to be, well, just some of the shows we've done. Off one album, five top 40 hits and four top five hits in the US isn't bad..!