After the rather sad year that the music world has seen thus far, fans waited with baited breath while reports of the Red Hot Chili Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis and his hospital stay started to roll in. Shows were being canceled and the updates were sparse. Clearly the monster that is 2016 couldn’t claim yet another beloved musician so soon, right? I mean, Prince, Bowie, Lemmy, Merle Haggard and more have left this corporeal realm already, it’s time for 2016 to cut it out. But it turned out to be intestinal flu, something that he’s making a full recovery from.
According to Billboard, this whole ordeal has actually been a positive for Kiedis. The singer was forced to take a long, hard look at his life and his health, with the scar tissue from a hernia surgery complicating his flu symptoms. The workaholic singer realized that taking care of himself was more important than some sort of macho toughing-it-out on stage.
“So it turned out to be a good thing, albeit painful and very sad to have to cancel shows — we don’t really do that. I’d rather play deathly ill than not at all, but in this particular instance I was starting to go down to the ground. I got rushed to the hospital, got some help and now I get to figure things out,” he explained.
Traveling and performing can be incredibly tough on performers, but also bittersweet. Most musicians continue to exist and make a living thanks to their loyal fans, so nobody wants to cancel shows, but doing so to live to play another day seems like the smart thing to do.
(Via Billboard)
