Aerosmith star Joe Perry was hospitalised after performing with Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday night.
The guitarist left the venue on a stretcher, according to multiple reports, after collapsing in his dressing room backstage. Paramedics, who spent over 30 minutes with the 68 year old, had to put a trachea down his throat to clear the air path before transporting him to a nearby hospital.
The rocker’s publicist, Marcee Rondan, released a statement to WENN on Sunday, confirming the news and revealing he “experienced shortness of breath and was treated backstage by paramedics who gave the guitarist oxygen”.
“This morning Perry remains in the hospital where he is alert and responsive,” Rondan adds. “The Aerosmith guitarist will be unable to appear today at Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp in Florida and apologizes to those attending. Perry is expected to return to the road later this month.”
It isn’t clear what brought on the breathing issue, but Perry suffered a medical emergency that led to his collapse onstage during a Hollywood Vampires gig in New York in 2016.
Reports suggested his health problems on that occasion stemmed from a combination of dehydration and exhaustion, and the group’s frontman, Alice Cooper, speculated at the time that Joe might have been unprepared for the rigours of a world tour.
“I look around the stage and he’s (Perry) gone,” Alice told Rolling Stone at the time. “He was lying behind an amp on his back… We didn’t know what happened until after the show.
“Aerosmith does two shows a week, but we were on our eighth show in nine days, and I’m used to working like that. I’m used to working an hour and 40 minutes or two hours, five nights a week. I was in shape and so was Johnny (Depp, the band’s other guitarist) and everybody else. I think Joe was not ready for that kind of pace.”
Perry missed five concerts and a charity performance, but returned to the stage for the band’s show at Rohnert Park in California weeks later.
He recently announced a new single and solo tour, while Aerosmith launched plans for a 2019 Las Vegas residency in September (18).
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