INXS all wanted a singer to replace the late Michael Hutchence

INXS wanted a female singer to replace the late Michael Hutchence.

Suze DeMarchi, singer of the band Baby Animals, who sang for the band’s “Need You Tonight” at a concert in 2000, has announced that she has been asked to take over as the permanent replacement for the frontman, who tragically took his own life in November 1997 at the age of 37.

Suze “seriously” considered accepting the offer, but then the group decided to look for a new lead singer on the reality show “Rock Star: INXS” in 2005.

Speaking on LiSTNR’s Behind The Hits show, she said: “There was a formal offer from her manager.

“They didn’t say, ‘You do this, we do that, some of it… It hadn’t gotten that far, but there had been discussions with their manager at the time, David Edwards, and Andrew and I had talked about it quite a bit…

“Right before they did this show, I was really seriously thinking about doing it. I was about to say, ‘Yeah, maybe we could try that,’ and then they said, ‘Well, we want to do this show.’ That’s how it went.”

They finally chose JD Fortune, a fan who had been living in his car.

He sang on the albums “Switch” from 2005 and “Original Sin” from 2010.

Multi-instrumentalist Jon Farriss admitted that they all wanted a female singer.

He said: “We all wanted (the winner) to be a girl.

“We packed it full of girls. There were 15 participants – eight girls and seven boys.”

JD’s tenure ended in 2011 when Ciaran Gribbin briefly stepped in before INXS announced at a concert at the Perth Arena in November 2012 that they would no longer be touring.