ANGRY ANDERSON: ROSE TATTOO Could Continue Writing, Recording And Releasing Music Beyond Band's 'Final' Year

In a new interview with Laughing Monkey With Shawn Ratches, ROSE TATTOO frontman Gary "Angry" Anderson discussed his previous announcement that the band, which formed in Sydney in 1976, will play its final live show at the end of this year. The 78-year-old Angry said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "When I say the end of the band, it's not gonna be completely the end of the band, but that's not something I really wanna talk about because I don't know what shape that's gonna take. But I said to Mick [Arnold, ROSE TATTOO guitarist] the other day when we were… I went down to Mick's place, the slide player, and we were doing some songwriting. And I said something to him about some of his tunes, and I said, 'We'll save them for next year.' And he looked at me and sort of smiled. And I knew the smile was one of, 'Fab. Thanks. That's great.' 'Cause I hadn't sort of shared that kind of prophecy, if you like, or plan in my... But I said to him, I said, 'We'll keep writing songs,' because I'm very much enjoying what we're coming up with for the next TATTS album. And I said, 'Well, so we'll keep writing, and we'll see what we produce.' And I said, 'If we produce a bunch of songs that really should be ROSE TATTOO songs,' I said, 'Well, we'll just go ahead and record them and just put them out.' When I say put them out, it's upload or whatever happens these days. So we'll make them available."

This past January, Anderson was asked by Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation if there are "mixed emotions" about taking one "final lap" with ROSE TATTOO. Angry said: "Oh, yeah. Yeah. I thought I was fine. I thought when you preempt something or you have pre-knowledge, and I don't mean to be gloomy, but when you know someone — I've just lost someone rather dear to me, yet another person, to cancer just recently, and we knew she was terminally ill. And so we had this two years plus of leading up to it — constant treatment, talking about it, blah, blah, blah — but it didn't prepare me for the shock. And it reminded me of losing the other members of the band. We all knew, months in some cases, years ahead of time, that they were terminally ill, but when it actually happens… And that's just human nature. That's just what happens."

Angry continued: "Three years ago, when I first went to Scot Crawford, our manager, and said, 'Are you aware of the fact that the band is 50 years old in a few years?' two and a half years, whatever it might've been. And he went, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' And I said, 'Well, we'll do another album.' 'Cause the songwriting with this particular lineup, predominantly with Mick, the slide player… And he's very prolific musically, and he comes up with the sort of music that appeals to me. It's very bluesy. It's quite modern technique, but it's very bluesy. It's very chordy, [with] some beautiful, beautiful nuances and some beautiful riffs and chord progressions, et cetera. So [I'm] quite happy and very excited about that. As far as we know, it'll be our last album."

Anderson added: "The end of the year, when I wake up on the morning, the first morning of '27, I'll wake up and the band will be gone.

"I was home by myself [this past] New Year's Eve, and I thought, 'I'm gonna drink some beer and bourbon and smoke a cigar and go to bed a happy man.' And foolishly I started… I'd had a couple of drinks and I was making something for myself to eat and I started listening to some of the new songs. And that's when it just came down on me like a fog. And, of course, I'd had three or four shots of bourbon by this… And I certainly wasn't pissed by that stage, but you get that nice buzz thing going on when it first comes on… And the new songs reminded me so much of the old songs, and when you hear them, you'll know what I'm saying, but in a different way altogether, really. But, yeah, I just sat there and I just thought, like, 'Wow.' Because by this time, midnight had come, and I just thought, well, [in] a year, I'll be sitting there possibly…' Well, I'll be with the band, 'cause we'll play on the New Year's Eve into the New Year's morning of the first morning of '27, because that's how the band started. We took our first gig from the New Year's Eve gig at the Chequers nightclub here in Sydney. And I thought, I'll wake up to a new year and I'll be bandless."

ROSE TATTOO's 2026 tour is showcasing the current lineup of Angry Anderson (vocals),Paul DeMarco (drums),Steve King (bass),Mick Arnold (guitar) and Ronnie Simmons (guitar).

ROSE TATTOO has released a total of eight studio albums: "Rose Tattoo" (1978),"Assault & Battery" (1981),"Scarred For Life" (1982),"Southern Stars" (1984),"Beats From A Single Drum" (1986),"Pain" (2002),"Blood Brothers" (2007) and "Outlaws" (2020).

Six former ROSE TATTOO members have died in recent years, including four of the original recording lineup: Dallas Royall (1991),Peter Wells (2006),Ian Rilen (2006),Mick Cocks (2009) and Lobby Loyde (2007),who was a member between October 1979 and September 1980, and Neil Smith (2013),who played bass temporarily prior to Loyde.

From the band's first gig on New Year's in 1976 until today, ROSE TATTOO has rarely strayed from its mantra of being the best barroom blues-based rock band in the world. For 50 years, the one constant is Anderson, whose vocals tell the story of bars, booze, fights and love, mostly lost.

ROSE TATTOO has toured relentlessly in Australia and Europe, with the occasional jaunt into the U.S., gathering fans along the way.