![\"Black](\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/757434\/original\/file-20260902-50-nb3m7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip\")
<\/a><\/p>\n Angry Anderson performs with Rose Tattoo in Rosemont, Illinois, 1982.
\n Paul Natkin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Their influence reached Guns N\u2019 Roses, who covered Nice Boys in 1986<\/a> and later asked Rose Tattoo to reunite<\/a> for their 1993 Australian shows. <\/p>\n Anderson\u2019s fame branched outside of hard rock. He played Ironbar Bassey in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985 and King Herod in Australia\u2019s arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1992. My favourite example is his solo ballad Suddenly, used for Scott and Charlene\u2019s wedding on Neighbours<\/a>. <\/p>\n After the episode aired in the United Kingdom, the song reached number three<\/a>. <\/p>\n Rose Tattoo disbanded in 1987, briefly reunited in 1993, then reformed in 1998 and returned to recording with Pain in 2002. Their place in Australian rock history was formally recognised with induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2006. <\/p>\n Who gets to represent Oz Rock<\/p>\n Anderson\u2019s legacy was built through a masculine image Rose Tattoo embraced from the start. In his words<\/a>, Rose Tattoo symbolised \u201cthe masculine violence of a tattoo coupled with the feminine beauty of a rose\u201d.<\/p>\n Anderson emerged from an aggressive, male-dominated pub rock scene<\/a>. In Oz Rock, toughness and working-class authenticity were valued at pub gigs<\/a>. <\/p>\n Pubs had long been gendered spaces which excluded women. Until 1970 in Queensland, women were excluded by law<\/a>. <\/p>\n The same gender hierarchy appeared in the music. Rose Tattoo\u2019s world is made up of boys, outlaws, fighters and mates. Women played a different role. Tramp, which Anderson co-wrote, reduces its female subject to sexual insults and availability to men. The band chose to rerecord it in 2020. <\/p>\n Women have always been a part of Australian rock, but representation influences who appears to belong. Songs like Tramp and the histories built around bands like Rose Tattoo centre male experience, influencing whose stories come to represent Australian rock to the wider public. <\/p>\n Anderson\u2019s public life complicates this representation. His record includes youth advocacy and charity work. In 1993, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia<\/a> for service to the community as a youth advocate. In 2010, he appeared before a federal parliamentary inquiry<\/a> into violence affecting young Australians. <\/p>\n Supporting disadvantaged young Australians became an important part of Anderson\u2019s identity. As he moved into formal politics, ideas of protection broadened from specific groups to the Australian public. The question then became who Anderson believed to belong within this public.<\/p>\n In 2013, he stood for the National Party<\/a> in the federal seat of Throsby. Three years later, he ran for the Senate with the Australian Liberty Alliance. The party proposed<\/a> a ten year halt on resident visas for people from Islamic countries and withdrawing Australia from the United Nations Refugee Convention. <\/p>\n