Pick a Day

Music History Events: Health Issues

October 26, 2010 Results of Ozzy Osbourne's genome sequencing are revealed. The study shows that Ozzy has a very high predisposition for alcohol and cocaine addiction, and that he was partly descended from Neanderthals.

May 23, 2008 Shirley Bassey suffers from abdominal pains in Monaco, necessitating emergency surgery and forcing her to cancel her upcoming appearance at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert.

April 13, 2008 Cult '60s Detroit Soul hero Nathaniel Mayer collapses from the brain hemorrhage that will, within the year, take his life.

January 31, 2008 Britney Spears' family helps orchestrate an intervention that lands her in the psychiatric ward of UCLA's hospital. She's taken by ambulance, which gets a police escort and draws a frenzy of media attention. The next day, her father is named as her conservator, as a court rules that Britney cannot care for herself. She is released a few days later and starts getting her life back together. Later in February, her saga is detailed in Rolling Stone; she appears on the cover with the headline, "Britney Spears: Inside An American Tragedy."

January 22, 2008 British tabloid The Sun posts video they claim is of Amy Winehouse smoking crack. The 24-year-old singer has been in and out of rehab, and is clearly in ill health. The video was apparently taken by a guest at her home.

August 24, 2007 During a routine medical exam in Gainesville, Florida, Bo Diddley complains of dizziness and nausea and is admitted to a local hospital, where he is diagnosed as having had a heart attack. The rock legend had suffered a stroke only a few months earlier.

June 15, 2007 Ferlin Huskey undergoes leg surgery in a Springfield, Missouri, hospital to improve his circulation.

November 6, 2006 Singer Marianne Faithfull publicly announces that she has beaten her two-month fight with breast cancer.

September 14, 2006 Marianne Faithfull announces she's undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

September 12, 2006 Marianne Faithfull announces she has breast cancer (seven weeks later she says she has made a "full recovery").

August 25, 2006 Longtime Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton misses his first gig in 24 years after being diagnosed with throat cancer.

June 17, 2006 Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones enters rehab to kick his drinking habit, but recovers in time to join the band on their latest world tour a month later.

April 27, 2006 62-year-old Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones falls out of a palm tree while vacationing in Fiji and goes to the hospital with a concussion, creating a rare news event on the island.

March 22, 2006 Aerosmith cancels the rest of their Rockin' The Joint tour so lead singer Steven Tyler can have throat surgery to treat strained vocal chords.

April 29, 2005 Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary undergoes a bone marrow transplant to battle leukemia.

March 29, 2005 Neil Young has brain surgery to remove an aneurysm. His vision became blurry at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies, and a subsequent checkup discovered the aneurysm.

November 19, 2004 The Vines frontman Craig Nicholls reveals that he has Asperger syndrome, a neurobiologcal disorder that causes autistic-like episodes and severe communication difficulties. This helps explain his wildly erratic behavior and belligerent outbursts; the diagnosis is revealed in a court case where he's charged with assaulting a photographer (Nicholls is cleared of the charges).

October 21, 2004 Bo Diddley postpones a concert in California to have a toe amputated due to complications from diabetes.

October 8, 2004 Melissa Etheridge announces that she has breast cancer. She cuts her tour short to undergo treatment but makes a full recovery. In February 2005 she performs at the Grammy Awards while still bald from chemotherapy.

August 17, 2004 Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg reveals that he is battling advanced prostate cancer.

August 10, 2004 The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts confirms that he is undergoing treatment for throat cancer, which eventually goes into remission.

July 30, 2004 While walking around London, The Isley Brothers' Ronald Isley suffers a minor stroke and is admitted to a local hospital. He recovers in a matter of just a few weeks.

June 30, 2004 Dave Davies of The Kinks suffers a massive stroke while walking out of a BBC building in London. Completely incapacitated for a few days, he gradually recovers, re-learning how to walk and play guitar over the next few years.

May 11, 2004 Willie Nelson cancels ten upcoming concerts in order to get some much-needed carpal tunnel surgery.

November 25, 2003 Meat Loaf undergoes surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat.

November 17, 2003 After collapsing on stage during a concert in London, Meat Loaf is rushed to a nearby hospital with what a publicist terms "exhaustion due to a prolonged viral infection" but what is actually an irregular heartbeat requiring emergency surgery.

November 10, 2003 David Bowie is forced to cancel the remainder of his gig in Nice, France, when laryngitis causes his voice to give out in the middle of "Ziggy Stardust." Doctors assign Bowie three days rest.

September 14, 2003 Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers undergoes surgery for a triple heart bypass in Liverpool.

May 1, 2003 While being treated for kidney failure, Barry White suffers a stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. The singer never fully recovers and dies a few months later.

April 16, 2003 Luther Vandross suffers a stroke that leaves him confined to a wheelchair. The singer, whose album Dance With My Father is released in June and goes to #1 in America, dies two years later.