In a new interview with Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation, ROSE TATTOO frontman Gary “Angry” Anderson confirmed that the band, which formed in Sydney in 1976, will play its final live show at the end of this year. Asked if there are “mixed emotions” about taking one “final lap” with his band, The 78-year-old 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 (Arnold), 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 will showcase 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.