Michael Hutchence has been called the Jim Morrison of his generation - and it's easy to see why. The INXS lead singer has raw sex appeal in abundance - the brash stare, full lips, measured shoulder and tousled hair - yet he shows an intelligence and sensitivity that hasn't been seen in a rock star since pre-punk days.

The combination is stunning. On stage he is a master of performance: energetic and inspiring, alternating between soulful singing and thrusting his groin at the - mostly female - audience. This provokes two responses: women want to go to bed with him, or slap his face for his macho posturings.

His private life is similarly provocative. He has been arrested for offences "related to sex"on stage (the case was later thrown out in court); his video for the single, Taste It, was banned from many TV pop shows for being too raunchy - with Michael having his clothes ripped off by a gorgeous blonde, being covered in chocolate and having his chest licked.

He has also repeatedly told of an affair with a 17 year old who was given to him at a party on a dog collar and chain.

"We got on really well. She was smart. When I was 19 - in the punk era - we used sex to shock in a real way, not the way the media uses it today. We'd run around with her on a chain ... It was hilarious. You had all these real men who thought they'd seen it all, and we sorted them out.

"Michael has spent many of his 33 years sorting people out. His anger is directed at those he considers hypocrites - the British upper classes. stick in the mud Australian politicians, music business bosses - but he is able to recognise his own internal demons.

He talks openly about past dalliances with drugs, including heroin, and about his life on the road. In the early days, the band financed itself by selling marijuana from the back of a car covered in Christian stickers to foil the police.

"You get offered things when you are on the road and you take them", - he says. - "And if you're a person like myself who wants to get as much as possible out of life, you keep on taking".

It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: sex attracts sex, like money makes money. The first years INXS toured America, I slept with a lot of women ... I was in a hotel room with someone, and the bed head was making too much noise on the wall, so I put a pillow behind it. Then that girl left and another girl came in and asked, 'What's that pillow for?' and I thought, You'll find out in a second'."

It is impossible to talk to Michael without mentioning Kylie Minogue.

INXS has had countless hit singles and albums - the latest, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts will be released in August - but it was Kylie, virginal girly pop star, who made Michael a celebrity.

And he was credited with turning her into a mini-skirted sex kitten. Pictures of Kylie in skimpy dresses and a blonde wig, straddling his Harley Davidson, transformed her into a vamp and made him a star. At the height of their affair, handcuffs were found in Kylie's bag at Heathrow Airport. Whether or not this was a publicity stunt, it suggested Kylie was sexually active - and perhaps a little kinky too.

"Kylie's no barbie doll", - says Michael. - "She's a really bright, really nice person. And I certainly didn't corrupt her. If anything, our relationship made her more independent".

Exactly what did the Kylie factor mean to Michael? She was credited with turning him into Mr Nice Guy, a yoga loving, vegemite eating, settling down kind of guy, while he helped banish her Goody-Two-Shoes image. But there was a fundamental difference in character.

The long and the short of it is that Michael dumped Kylie. After two years of engagement pledges and statements about happy ever after, the couple split. Rumour and press reports blamed Michael's womanising. He was photographed with beauties around the world, and Kylie couldn't cope. It was fidelity or nothing, so out she went.

While Michael was dating Kylie, photographer Herb Ritts introduced him to Denmark's top model, the stunningly beautiful Helena Christensen, who soon succumbed to the Hutchence charm and is Michael's current girlfriend. He makes various public statements about his depth of emotion for her and so far, despite rumours that their relationship was on the rocks when he visited Kylie on a daily basis during a trip to Britain a few months ago, Helena seems to have done a better job than most in keeping the wild man of rock by her side. She has even persuaded him to cook for her.

He puts the continued success of their relationship down to the fact that they are both used to fame.

"I remember Bono of U2 saying, 'Rock stars know what it's like to be beautiful women'. He's right. We're stared at all the time. Women come up to us like men walk up to gorgeous women. We can be lazy in bed because the women are eager to please the star, just as beautiful women don't have to lift a finger, because the male is eager to please".

Michael is worth about $35 million and has houses in Hong Kong, France and Australia. Success turned him into the typical sex, drugs and rock'n'roll star, but now he says he has calmed down, mellowed.

"I'm not quite the gypsy I used to be", - he says. - "I used to see how far I could push the barriers. Now, however corny it sounds, I treasure the value of a good relationship, and I realise that experimentation and wandering cause pain".