Do we like them?

Do we like Neil Finn?

Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up and there's real good on the record, but the sourcing on his politics is thin.

Neil Finn is a Te Awamutu kid who joined his brother Tim's band Split Enz at 18, in 1977. From there he became one of the best-loved songwriters on either side of the Tasman, and he has a hall-of-fame spot at his old school to show for it. The town still claims him as a favourite son.

The Finn family story is mostly a musical one: Tim and Neil grew up in the same Waikato town, and the Forever Enz tour was pitched as something of a homecoming for them. The tour opened in Hamilton, just up the road from where they were raised, and reviewers described a nostalgic show where the crowd leaned towards polite appreciation rather than dancing in the aisles.

There's no scandal to tell here, and I looked. Searches for court cases, lawsuits and accusations against him came up empty, and the only mess that surfaced was an AI-generated fake news clip about him, which is rubbish aimed at him rather than anything he did. That's honestly the whole list.

On the harm check, nothing nasty came up. No campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, no conspiracy theories, no culture-war grifting, and no run of films or projects with people who push that stuff. The record on his positions is thin, so this is a pass on what's there rather than a deep dive. When he does speak on politics, it's thoughtful: he declined a knighthood, calling the monarchy “a symbol of something quite rotten in the core of our society”.

The honours that did come his way are a better guide to his standing. In December 2024 he and Tā Pita Sharples received the Arts Foundation's Icon Award Whakamana Hiranga, which the foundation describes as its highest honour. He said he was grateful for being thought of when the knighthood came up, and thought award ceremonies a bit vain.

On the charity front, in 2020 he put out a single to support the Auckland City Mission during the pandemic, which fits a pattern of using his songs to help people. The good stuff is quiet rather than showy, and that suits him. We couldn't find a pile of quotable causes beyond that, so we won't pad it.