Early Splitz Enz member Mike Chunn has appeared on TVNZ 1's Breakfast programme to talk about his new memoir - A Sharp Left Turn.
Chunn opened up to John Campbell about the glory days, and what led him to quit the band suddenly.
He was open about his struggle with agoraphobia - where a person suffers anxiety in situations they perceive to be unsafe or with no easy way to escape.
In 1967, "people didn't want to go on stages back then," he said.
"When I saw A Hard Day's Night at the age of 12, before that, all the music you heard was lush and gorgeous, and you didn't imagine what part you could play," he said.
"Hard Day's Night, four guys, three guitars, write some songs, sing the songs, they looked friendly and they got on - and I could do that too."
The Play it Strange CEO first saw Lorde perform when she was only 12.
Chunn said his head battled against his heart, while deciding whether to keep going with Split Enz - with his heart in for the long haul, but his agoraphobia increasingly difficult to manage.
"Every issue that band had, we just charged through - we would be the most non-communicative, internally, band I've ever heard of," he said.
He put that down to a religious schooling system which encouraged students to "be quiet".
He said agoraphobia "whacked into me one night in Wellington with a panic attack.
"But the heart is going, 'no mate, you wanted to be in this band, you wanted to be a Beatle' - and my head and my heart had a big punch up, and the heart lost."
Watch the full interview above.
SHARE ME