Tim Farriss

Tim Farriss
Tim Farriss (right) with Rob Thomas
Background information
Birth name	Timothy William Farriss
Born	(1957-08-16) 16 August 1957 (age 59) Perth, Western Australia
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, Vocals, keyboards
Years active	1977-present
Associated acts	INXS
Website	Tim Farriss from the INXS website

Timothy William "Tim" Farriss (born 16 August 1957) is a founding member and lead guitarist of the disbanded rock band 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 fucking riff Timmy”, which led 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 .

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.