Pick a Day

Music History Events: Health Issues

March 9, 1976 Keith Moon collapses onstage at the beginning of a Who concert at the Boston Garden.

January 1, 1976 Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant walks for the first time following his horrible car accident in Greece the previous year.

December 1, 1975 Bette Midler has a very memorable 30th birthday: she is hospitalized and undergoes an emergency appendectomy.

November 1, 1975 Due to lead singer Karen Carpenter's struggle with anorexia, The Carpenters are forced to cancel their upcoming European tour.

September 25, 1975 Jackie Wilson has a heart attack while performing "Lonely Teardrops" at the Dick Clark "Good Ol' Rock 'n' Roll" revue in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. When he falls, he hits his head and goes into a coma for four months. He regains consciousness but suffers brain damage that leaves him unable to walk or talk. Wilson dies in 1984.

December 2, 1974 Ravi Shankar is hospitalized after suffering chest pains while touring with George Harrison.

February 1, 1974 Guitarist Eric Bell leaves Thin Lizzy due to ill health brought on by alcohol abuse.

December 11, 1973 Bobby Darin has an operation to repair his artificial heart valves at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. He dies nine days later at age 37.

October 15, 1973 Having experienced respiratory problems for the past four days, Elvis Presley is admitted for two weeks to Memphis' Baptist Memorial Hospital with what is termed "pneumonia." Dr. George Nichopoulos, Elvis's personal physician, discovers his patient's addiction to Demerol.

July 15, 1973 At a festival concert in White City, London, a visibly distraught Ray Davies, newly separated from his wife, announces on stage that he's retiring from show business, leaves the concert, and checks into a local hospital for exhaustion. (A week later, he will return to the band.)

March 7, 1973 Columbia A&R giant John Hammond suffers a non-fatal heart attack at an early show by one of his proteges, Bruce Springsteen.

February 14, 1973 David Bowie collapses at the end of a Ziggy Stardust performance at Madison Square Garden, claiming "total exhaustion."

September 15, 1972 Constant touring and cocaine take their toll on Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who collapses after the band's show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Sabbath cancel the rest of their shows for the year so they can all rest and recover.

May 29, 1971 Thirty-six fans are treated after drinking cider spiked with LSD at a Grateful Dead show at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom.

November 5, 1970 Long since retired from touring with his group, Brian Wilson joins The Beach Boys on stage at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles only to suffer inner ear damage in his good ear from an excessively loud sound system. After losing his balance a few times, he is helped backstage.

October 15, 1969 Famed blues singer Howlin' Wolf suffers his first non-fatal heart attack.

February 8, 1969 George Harrison gets a tonsilectomy.

October 8, 1968 Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas, makes her solo debut at the Circus Maximus theater at Caesars' Palace in Las Vegas, where she is scheduled for two shows a night for three weeks at a rate of $40,000 per week. She gets sick before the first show but does both anyway, straining to get through them. The rest of the run is cancelled, and Elliot undergoes throat surgery.

September 15, 1968 Jim Morrison collapses during Jefferson Airplane's set at a concert in Amsterdam, forcing The Doors, who are sharing the bill, to go on as a trio.

March 2, 1968 At King Edward VII Hospital in London, Cat Stevens is diagnosed with tuberculosis. He spends three months in the hospital and another six recovering. The ordeal leads him to look inward and write songs like "On The Road To Find Out" and "Wild World" about the quest for meaning life.

January 13, 1968 Dr. K.C. Pollack of the University of Florida audio laboratory reports that tests have determined rock and roll concerts cause noise damage in teenagers' ears.

February 26, 1967 After buying a ranch in Mississippi, Elvis Presley spends a lot of time on horses and gets saddlesores. He is referred to Dr. George Nichopoulos, who becomes his personal doctor and supplies his prescription drugs.

July 5, 1966 Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers has an operation in a Los Angeles hospital to remove nodes on his vocal cords.

June 10, 1966 Steve Marriott of Small Faces collapses while performing on the British show Ready Steady Go!, forcing the band to cancel a week of shows.

April 12, 1966 Tom Jones enters a hospital to have his tonsils removed, though some who claim to have seen his tonsils since claim his real visit was for a nose job.

December 19, 1965 Keith Moon collapses during a Who concert in Ontario.

August 1, 1965 Marianne Faithfull collapses during a performance in Lancashire, England, and is taken to a hospital, canceling the remainder of her tour.

June 3, 1964 During a photo shoot for The Saturday Evening Post, an exhausted Ringo Starr collapses and is rushed to the hospital, where he is diagnosed with tonsillitis and pharyngitis. Jimmy Nicol replaces him on the Beatles tour.

June 12, 1962 Brenda Lee dislocates her neck while performing at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and is hospitalized.

February 4, 1961 Johnny Burnette is rushed to Hollywood's Cedars of Lebanon Hospital to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The medical crisis forces Burnette, then on the charts with "You're Sixteen," to cancel $10,000 worth of domestic engagements and postpone a European tour.