Later Reformations
Anderson mounted his solo career from mid-1987. He released the ballad, "Suddenly" as a single. It was taken from Beats from a Single Drum, which was then re-released as his debut solo album in 1988. "Suddenly" had little chart success until it was used on television soap opera, Neighbours for the wedding of characters Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan) and Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue). "Suddenly" peaked at No. 2 in September 1987 and was kept out of top spot by Minogue's debut single, "Locomotion". In the early 90s, Anderson tried to reunite Rose Tattoo, but the death of Royall, who died in 1991 of cancer while trying to overcome substance abuse in the form of a heroin addiction and alcoholism, stalled the reformation.
In an interview with Australian journalist Nick Milligan on 25 March 2011, Anderson explained, "I was in Los Angeles in 1989 recording an album which the 'Bound For Glory' single came off and I was hanging around with the Gunners and a whole lot of other LA bad boy rock bands that we supposedly influenced. I realised then that apart from the fact that I was there to establish myself as a singer songwriter, there was still this great following for the band. I rang up the other members and said 'Let's reform. We've been apart for three years or more.' It was long enough for us to settle our differences and let all the wounds heal. I rang up each of the original members that were still interested and they all said, 'Yeah, let's get together.' So I said we should negotiate a deal where the band can come over and record in Los Angeles. But, of course, that was the year that our original drummer "Digger" Royall kicked his heroin habit. While he was recovering on methadone, cancer exploded through his body, quite sadly. That was the irony of it, because the cancer had been suppressed by the heroin addiction. Within months he was dead. That shook the band so badly on a personal level, because we had been so enthusiastic to reform. We didn't reform until '92. In '93, the word got around, because we had reformed with our existing drummer Paul DeMarco. The Gunners heard we were out playing again and said, 'We want you to do our support gigs throughout Australia.' We did those two raceways gigs - Eastern Creek in Sydney and the raceway down in Melbourne."
Rose Tattoo supported Guns N' Roses on the Australian leg of their Use Your Illusion Tour. Anderson, Wells, Cocks, Leach and new drummer Paul DeMarco from Wells' solo band reunited for the 1993 tour. The reunion was brief and each returned to solo projects.
Around this time, ex-members of Rose Tattoo formed a short lived band with ex-Candy Harlots vocalist Aiz Lynch. This band had numerous rehearsals, but only recorded one demo before disbanding. Rose Tattoo, with original bassist Ian Rilen replacing Leach, reformed yet again in 1998 for the "All Hell Breaks Loose!!" tour, however Rilen remained with the band only for the duration of this tour. By the following year, Leach had returned to the fold once more, although his place was taken by Steve King in 2000. Rock music historian Ian McFarlane wrote that they are "one of the most revered bands of all time. The Tatts played peerless, street-level heavy blues with the emphasis on slide guitar and strident lyric statements" in his Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop.
Since that time Rose Tattoo has toured regularly around Australia and throughout Europe. In 2000, the band appeared at the Wacken Open Air festival as part of their tour. These shows formed the basis of the 25 to Life live album. 2002 saw the release of Pain, the band's first studio album in 16 years. Cocks rejoined the group and they prepared material for a future album.
Plans for their next album, Blood Brothers were disrupted when Wells died on 27 March 2006, four years after his diagnosis of prostate cancer. On 16 August, Rose Tattoo were inducted by musician, Sarah McLeod, into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame alongside former member Lobby Loyde and Daddy Cool, Divinyls, Icehouse and Helen Reddy. Founding member Ian Rilen died on 30 October from bladder cancer. One of his last public appearances was at the Hall of Fame induction.
Also in October, a number of Rose Tattoo songs were voted upon and ranked in the Triple M Essential 2006 Countdown of songs, including "Bad Boy for Love" (voted No. 1060 out of 2006) and "We Can't Be Beaten" (voted No. 397 out of 2006). That month they were one of 55 acts voted and played in Triple J's Impossible Music Festival of 2006, with their live recording of a gig performed on New Year's Day 1980 at Mount Druitt, New South Wales being selected out of over 1000 Live at the Wireless recordings produced over the radio station's 31-year history.
On 21 April 2007, Lobby Loyde died, aged 65, in Melbourne, two years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. In June, Rose Tattoo supported Guns N' Roses with Sebastian Bach on their Chinese Democracy Tour's Australian leg. In October they supported Motörhead on their Australian tour dates. In an interview with Australian rock magazine Unbelievably Bad, Anderson announced his intention to retire the band after one more album.
In 2008 they played the Super Bock Super Rock festival in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Download Festival in England. In April 2009 it was announced that guitarist Mick Cocks had liver cancer—he died on 22 December. Five former members have died, all of cancer—Dallas Royall (cancer, 1991), Peter Wells (prostate cancer, 2006), Ian Rilen (bladder cancer, 2006), Lobby Loyde (lung cancer, 2007) and Mick Cocks (liver cancer, 2009).
Rose Tattoo are currently preparing to celebrate their 35th anniversary in 2011. They are demoing songs for a new album in 2012. In an interview with Australian rock journalist Nick Milligan on Friday, 25 March 2011, Anderson confirmed that the new record would be the group's "final statement".
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