Early Life and The Formation of INXS
Tim Farriss was born in Perth, Western Australia, to Dennis and Jill Farriss, and is the oldest of four children: he has two brothers, Andrew and Jon, and a sister, Alison. He was classically trained on the guitar from the ages of eight to twelve by Peter Fredericci who played with the Australian Symphony Orchestra.
As an adolescent, Farriss attended the Forest High School in Sydney. There he quickly formed a friendship with Kirk Pengilly. Farriss (lead guitar) and Pengilly (guitar and saxophone) soon formed the band "Guinness," the eventual base and bedrock to the future internationally successful group, INXS.
During Farriss' painful recovery from an operation to remove abnormal bone growths in his legs, the result of a Hereditary Multiple Exostoses (which his brother Jon also suffers from), his brother Andrew recruited school friends and "Doctor Dolphin" band mates Garry Gary Beers (bass guitar) and Michael Hutchence (vocals).
During the Summer XS tour in 1991 INXS played Wembley Stadium in front of 77,000 people, at one point Michael Hutchence told Tim to “play the f***ing riff Timmy.” Which lead to Farriss being nicknamed The Riff Meister, and later The Riff Sherriff. The moment was captured on film and CD for “Live Baby Live.”
Tim plays various G&L (with which INXS hold an endorsement) and Fender guitars, his favourite being a 1956 Stratocaster.
During the 2006 “Switch” tour Tim suffered a knee injury, leading to surgery and the cancellation of several performances; After a short time recuperating Farriss decided to go back on stage wearing a knee support.
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