Tina Hutchence on Michael’s mental state before death

His surprise death shocked music fans across the world 20 years ago.

And INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was reportedly in an extremely fragile mental state due to a previous traumatic brain injury [TBI] leading up to the tragic event.

His sister Tina described her late brother’s condition with Fitzy & Wippa on Monday, in the lead-up to the Channel Seven documentary The Last Rockstar.

Hosts Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli asked Tina if she sensed anything wrong with Michael, who was 37, around the time of his death.

She reflected on the brain injury he had sustained during a night out in Denmark in 1992, with then girlfriend Helena Christensen.

The pop star was punched by a taxi driver, falling to the pavement and fracturing his skull while permanently losing his sense of taste and smell.

‘Michael had been in pretty bad shape for over a year,’ she explained of his unsound mental state leading up to his demise

‘Michael had been in pretty bad shape for over a year,’ she explained of his unsound mental state leading up to his demise.

‘He was on anti-depressants. There were a number of things, not the least of which was the traumatic brain injury he’d [earlier] sustained.

‘In the Nineties, nobody knew much about a TBI. Now if somebody gets hit on the football field, they expel them right away. 

‘With large sound, a lot of people, crowded places, most people with a TBI cannot handle that. Well, that was Michael’s business,’ she described.

‘He was on anti-depressants. There were a number of things, not the least of which was the traumatic brain injury he’d [earlier] sustained,’ she explained

Reflection: Tina described her late brother’s condition with Fitzy & Wippa on Monday, in the lead-up to the Channel Seven documentary Michael Hutchence: The Last Rockstar

Tina shared her brother had called her the night before he flew back to Australia for the band’s next tour stop and said ‘he was not anxious to go’.

‘He really didn’t want to go. I knew the whole tour had been tough on him. Actually it was probably the first time, that last year, often when I spoke to him he would dissolve into tears,’ she stated.

‘That was so not Michael. The pressures around him were just too much; he really needed a break. The British tabloid world was shocking, just vicious. Michael was a lover, not a warrior. It was very hard on him,’ she added. 

‘The pressures around him were just too much; he really needed a break. Michael was a lover, not a warrior,’ she added