It isn't always about the destination, says INXS bassist Garry Beers, chatting on his cellphone and travelling around Niagara-on-the-Lake in southern Ontario.
But it's easy to sound fortune-cookie prophetic when you don't actually know where you're going.
"We're lost," he laughs. "But we kind of like the back roads, the roads less travelled. I've been here before, but I've never actually taken the time to look around."
Edmonton will set its sights on the band on Tuesday, at Rexall Place.
Looking back, Beers might not have predicted INXS would last as long as it has, with the Aussie band celebrating its 30th anniversary next year. That's still about six months away, though. Change often comes quickly and, for INXS, tragically, too.
In 1997, INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence was found dead in a Sydney hotel room, a victim of an apparent suicide.
When he died, he sort of took the band with him. The remaining members decided to close shop - at least for a short while.
INXS, recalls Beers, ultimately didn't have its fill.
"Not long after Michael died, we tried working with a few different singers," he says. "But it just didn't work - it always ended up being 'us' and 'them.' "
Among "them" were singers like Suze DeMarchi and Jimmy Barnes. The few gigs INXS had with Terence Trent D'Arby were promising, but he eventually left to focus on his solo career. So, too, did Jon Stevens, even though he was officially made a member of INXS in 2002.
It was frustrating, Beers says, but not entirely surprising, either.
"When you're dealing with established singers, they're always going to be their own guy. We wanted someone to become part of the band, part of INXS. So we figured the only way to do that was to find an unknown, someone who was a fan of the band and wanted to join."
Enter Nova Scotia's J.D. Fortune via 2005's Rock Star: INXS reality TV series.
The hipper advent of a singing contest by way of reality TV, not to mention Fortune being a much younger 33 years old, has revitalized and repackaged INXS for a new generation of fans. Now 48, Beers recognizes the music industry's playing field isn't what it once was, but is quick to defend the idea that INXS was jumping on an American Idol-inspired bandwagon.
"We actually had the (singing-contest) idea not long after Michael died. It wasn't really a concept - it just came up. We knew the only way to find an unknown singer would be through the medium of television, although reality TV hadn't really taken off to the degree it has now.
"But we've always been ones to embrace the medium of film, anyway. Living in Australia, the only way to make ourselves known was through videos. That's why when MTV came on the air, we became MTV favourites - we won six MTV awards for Kick (in 1987). I'm not that big on doing videos, to be honest, because I'm not all that big on having cameras stuck in my face."
Being in the spotlight is an adjustment Fortune had to quickly make. The former Elvis impersonator wasn't unaccustomed to performing, but the sudden leap to worldwide recognition was a radical one.
And knowing how elusive chemistry can be, Beers says INXS didn't take the Rock Star selection process lightly.
Fortune had already bucked his teammates on the show in a songwriting portion of the competition, so there was doubt about whether he could work and play well with others.
What viewers didn't get to see, however, were the off-camera jam sessions and the opportunities the band had to simply chat with Fortune. Beyond being talented, Beers says he wanted to make sure the new singer was a person he could enjoy beers with.
It didn't take long for Fortune to make an impact with and on the band.
Once Rock Star wrapped, the band gave itself five weeks to record its latest album, Switch. While most of the album was already written going into the show, Fortune still garnered a few credits on the final product.
"We managed to get collaborations (with Fortune) on three of the songs (Devil's Party, Pretty Vegas and Never Let You Go), which was pretty amazing.
"But we had to fine-tune them all and perform them from scratch. Without J.D., we wouldn't have known what key to put the songs in, for example - he's the one that has to sing them for the next few years. Things have gone beautifully, considering we didn't know the guy from a bar of soap."
They know him better now, of course, and have even got a chance to catch up with their new in-laws, so to speak. The band played a series of gigs in the Maritimes, and Beers is happy to report that Fortune's mom and grandmother are just lovely.
Still wheeling in and around the Niagara area, Beers leisurely pulls up to a shop to look at a few antiques, relax and bask in the glow of what was a killer show in Toronto the night before. As far as he's concerned, INXS's honeymoon is far from over.
"We took the risk and we're in control of what we want to do. We're firing on all cylinders now."
