Angry Anderson, the frontman of Australian hard rock veterans Rose Tattoo, has died, aged 79.
“It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Gary “Angry” Anderson on the eve of Monday 21 September 2026, surrounded by his loved ones here in Australia” reads at statement posted on the band’s Facebook page.
“Angry was a devoted father, and much-loved member of his friends, bandmates and the wider music and entertainment community. His loss will be deeply felt by all those who knew and loved him both here in Australia and overseas.
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“The family and band members are asking for privacy at this difficult time and will not be giving interviews. We kindly ask that their wishes are respected as they come to terms with this devastating loss and take time they need to grieve.
“We thank everyone for their prays and messages of love and continued support.”
Anderson was born in Melbourne in 1947, and formed his first band, Buster Brown, in 1973. The blues rock outfit recorded their only album, Something to Say, the following year, before drummer Phil Rudd left for Sydney to join AC/DC in 1975.
Anderson followed him a year later, when he hooked up with Rose Tattoo, a band whose blues-drenched, sewer-rat rock’n’roll embodied the singer’s uncompromising personality. The band shared both a production team (Vanda and Young) and record label (Albert Productions) with AC/DC, not to mention a deep kinship with their fellow Aussies.
“In the early days the Tatts were AC/DC’s fave band to go and see,” Anderson told Classic Rock in 2018. “That’s how we got signed to Alberts, they recommended us,” Anderson exclaims. “Malcolm and Angus [Young] and particularly Bon [Scott] all jammed with us back then.”
The band’s self-titled debut album (released in some overseas territories as Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw) was released in 1978, and is best known for featuring the song Nice Boys, later covered by Guns N’ Roses on their Live ?!★@ Like a Suicide EP. They recorded four further studio albums – Assault & Battery (1981), Scarred For Life (1982), Southern Stars (1984) and Beats From A Single Drum – before splitting in 1987.
In their early years, Rose Tattoo made their name by combining their bluesy hard rock with famously aggressive and confrontational live shows, fuelled by cheap drugs. The band’s show at the UK’s Reading Festival in 1981 became legendary when Anderson deliberately smacked himself in the face with a microphone and then, his face smeared with blood, slammed the stand through the wooden stage before exiting to the wings.
“Speed was around, amyl was around, it was all about getting fully charged and just seeing how fast and dangerous you could be,” Anderson told Planet Rock magazine in 2018. “We had this maniacal bass player [Ian Rilen], this Ronnie Wood character playing guitar [Mick Cocks], and Pete [Wells, slide guitar], who was this God-like creature.
“So I’m feeding off this maniacal energy, and I was so inspired by it and so caught up in it I thought, We’re going to be the most dangerous thing on the fucking planet. And if you don’t like it, stand aside or lose a limb.”
In the summer of 1987, Anderson scored an unlikely hit single in the UK when Suddenly from his first solo album Beats From A Single Drum reached number 2 in the UK.
The song’s popularity was due to it being used in a much-watched episode of Australian television soap opera Neighbours, which featured the wedding of popular characters Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan) and Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue).
A second solo album, Blood From Stone, arrived in 1990, before Rose Tattoo briefly reunited in 1993 to support Guns N’ Roses on tour in Australia – “Axl Rose said, ‘No Rose Tattoo, no Guns N’ Roses'” Anderson said in 2018 – and reformed in 1998, subsequently releasing three more albums, Pain (2002), Blood Brothers (2007) and Outlaws (2020).
Away from music, Anderson played the character Ironbar in the 1985 blockbuster film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and embarked on a political career as a member of the conservative National Party before standing as an election candidate for the short-lived far-right Australian Liberty Alliance Party.
“I ran for a federal seat, then for a state one and finally for the Senate, and it soon became obvious that both parties are as bad as each other,” he told Classic Rock. “The Who articulated it perfectly: ‘Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss’ [from Won’t Get Fooled Again]. I will be a conservative for the rest of my days, but I’ve got a foot in both camps. Power is all about keeping people at odds with one another.”
Rose Tattoo had planned to play their final shows in 2026, but the band’s European tour was cut short last month after Anderson suffered a cardiac arrest and was hospitalised in Germany.
“We wrap it up at the end of next year,” Anderson told Melbourne radio station 3AW last year. “We will be 50 years old in ’26 on New Year’s Eve. I am proud to say – because I have survived all the original members, and a few along the way – we have achieved what we set out to achieve. At the end of the day, if you can say that you are a lucky man.”