Pick a Day

Music History Events: Health Issues

July 16, 1995 At North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center, Wayne Osmond of The Osmonds undergoes an operation to remove a brain tumor.

June 24, 1995 Eddie Vedder, felled by a bad tuna fish sandwich, has to leave Pearl Jam's show at the Polo Fields in San Francisco after seven songs. Neil Young, on hand to play a song or two as a special guest, takes over, playing 14 songs to quell a potential riot. The No Code song "Red Mosquito" is about this incident.

March 3, 1995 R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry undergoes successful brain surgery. Berry collapsed due to a brain aneurysm during a concert in Switzerland.

November 20, 1994 Former Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young member David Crosby receives a liver transplant.

November 2, 1994 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's David Crosby is hospitalized after suffering liver failure; he's fortunate enough to find a donor for a transplant.

October 6, 1994 Glenn Frey has stomach surgery for diverticulitis, causing the Eagles to postpone dates on their their Hell Freezes Over tour, which resumes in January.

August 26, 1994 Scottish singer/songwriter Frankie Miller suffers a brain hemorrhage while in New York, lapsing into a five-month coma that eventually forces him into physical therapy to regain his motor skills.

June 12, 1994 Cab Calloway suffers a stroke that leads to his death a few months later.

March 4, 1994 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana spends 20 hours in a coma after overdosing on Rohypnol (a prescription sedative) and champagne.

April 25, 1993 Legendary album artist Stanley "Mouse" Miller, designer of Grateful Dead's "skull and roses" logo, has his upcoming liver transplant financed by the band.

February 16, 1993 The Faces reunite at the BRIT Awards, where Rod Stewart receives a lifetime achievement award. Bill Wyman replaces original Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, who has multiple sclerosis.

February 10, 1993 Michael Jackson appears on Oprah's prime time special, where he talks about having a skin condition called Vitiligo, and claims he's had just 2 plastic surgery operations.

July 14, 1992 Olivia Newton-John makes public her bout with breast cancer, which she will eventually beat.

July 4, 1992 John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas receives a liver transplant in Los Angeles.

November 1, 1991 Eddie Kendricks, formerly with The Temptations, gets out of the hospital after having a cancerous lung removed.

October 17, 1991 John Mellencamp faints during a radio station appearance in Seattle and is rushed to the hospital, where the cardiologist cites "too much coffee, stress and not enough breakfast" as the cause. His chain-smoking doesn't help either.

November 25, 1988 Having successfully completed their stint in an Arizona rehab clinic for alcoholism, Ringo Starr and his second wife, actress Barbara Bach, return to England.

October 4, 1988 Determined to finally clean his system of the alcohol and drugs he's been abusing for years, Ringo Starr, along with wife Barbara Bach, flies to Tucson, Arizona, to enter the Sierra Tucson Rehabilitation Clinic. He stays six weeks.

March 20, 1987 Poison frontman Bret Michaels collapses after their set at Madison Square Garden, where they're opening for Ratt. After waking up in the hospital, Michaels reveals that he's diabetic and the collapse was caused by insulin shock.

January 6, 1987 In Australia, Elton John has throat surgery to remove a lesion on his vocal chords, forcing him to cancel his upcoming US tour. It's good news: the lesion isn't cancerous and he makes a full recovery.

December 2, 1986 Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to painkillers.

July 10, 1986 Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia goes into a diabetic coma, forcing the band to cancel the rest of their tour. He's in the coma for five days, and when he comes to, he has to learn how to walk and talk again. After months of rehab, he gets his faculties back and in December, and is once again on stage with his band.

March 14, 1981 After toughing out a concert in Madison, Wisconsin, in severe pain, Eric Clapton is flown to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he's treated for severe ulcers that nearly kill him. The rest of the tour is cancelled, and Clapton spends almost six weeks in the hospital recovering. In January 1982, he returns to Minnesota and enters rehab to treat the alcohol addition that caused his ulcers.

October 4, 1980 On stage during a concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carly Simon collapses from nervous exhaustion. She keeps going, but cancels the rest of her tour when she can't go on the next night. She doesn't perform again until 1987.

September 21, 1980 Bob Marley, who had refused treatment for a spreading melanoma due to his religious beliefs, collapses while jogging in New York's Central Park and is hospitalized. Two nights later he performs the next date on his North American tour, the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, but it sadly proves to be his last.

July 14, 1980 In France, Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry contracts a kidney infection and is flown to London after collapsing in his hotel room.

September 27, 1979 While performing (ominously) "Better Off Dead" at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Elton John collapses at his piano and is rushed offstage. He returns 15 minutes later to finish the show, citing "exhaustion" as the cause of his collapse.

April 13, 1979 David Lee Roth collapses on stage from exhaustion during a Van Halen tour stop in Spokane, Washington.

January 10, 1979 Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters enters the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, to treat an addiction to quaaludes. He takes a year off after his treatment.

September 28, 1976 George Harrison, ill with hepatitis, is sued by his American label, A&M, for failing to deliver his latest album, 33 1/3, on time.