
Michael Hutchence, the hugely successful Australian singer/musician, frontman for INXS frontman, died 20 years ago tomorrow in lurid circumstances in a hotel bedroom. He was found hanged which could have been suicide or an auto-asphyxiation sex game gone wrong. Caught up in an escalating tabloid drama over his relationship with Paula Yates, he was sinking in a sea of drink, drugs and depression. The autopsy found alcohol, cocaine, Prozac and prescription drugs in his system,
He was born 22 January 1960 at 5am Sydney, Australia and had a maverick, exuberant Aquarius Sun conjunct his Capricorn Ascendant squaring onto a musical Neptune and intensely emotional Moon in Scorpio in his 10th house. According to a rock-music historian “he was the archetypal rock showman. He exuded an overtly sexual, macho cool with his flowing locks, and lithe and exuberant stage movements.” He also had Uranus in his 7th house suggesting he was not cut out for long-term committed relationships.
What struck me as odd at the time about his chart, was his 8th house Pluto trine a 12th house Mars Saturn in Capricorn. Kevin Spacey has similar with Saturn trine Mars Pluto trine Moon; as does Mel Gibson with Saturn Mars square Pluto. Both Spacey and Gibson have hair-raising fathers which is what you’d expect from these aspects. Yet nothing much is ever spoken about Hutchence upbringing apart from the bare details of years spent in Hong Kong with his businessman father and a separation of his parents at one point in his teens.
The blame for his downward spiral in the last year of his life is always pointed at Paula Yates, who was certainly chaotic, an addict herself and obsessed with publicity, and Bob Geldof who sensibly refused to allow his two children to accompany Yates out of the country. But I would hazard a guess that the reasons behind his depression and escapist addictions were bound up in his difficult relationship with his father and family.
Kelland Hutchence, 20 July 1924, a Sun Cancer square Saturn in Libra, was not an easy mix with his son. K’s Saturn squared Michael’s Sun, Ascendant, Mercury making M feel inadequate. Worse K’s Pluto opposed M’s Saturn Mars in Capricorn, so there would be a deep reservoir of anger issues. The relationship chart has a hostile composite Mars opposition Pluto square Mercury opposition Sun with an evasive, disappointed composite Sun square Neptune. The Mars Pluto opposition was being triggered when Hutchence died with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Mars.
The relationship between the Hutchence parents would have been very volatile. His mother, Patricia, 6 July 1926, was a Sun Pluto in Cancer square Mars in Aries, so had a dominating, angry father herself and seems to have married the same. The Kelland/Patricia relationship chart had an extremely volatile composite Mars Uranus square Venus and trine the Sun; with a power-struggling Jupiter opposition Pluto.
Michael’s Pluto in his 8th points both to the unconscious ability to project a powerful image, like many superstars, onto the public; but it also points to an all-powerful grandparent. His Mars Saturn in the 12th points to a difficult pregnancy for his mother when she was carrying him, leaving him with a residue of fear and anger.
The pressures from the Yates/Geldof involvement may have been a symptom but not the cause. What drive him to a tragic end was probably two generations in the making.