SLASH Recalls Hearts Scare At MICHAEL JACKSON Show

June 28, 2009

Paul Cole of the U.K.'s Sunday Mercury reports that former GUNS N' ROSES and current VELVET REVOLVER guitarist Slash faced a medical crisis of his own while appearing at Michael Jackson's 40th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden.

Slash — whose real name is Saul Hudson — reveals that it was his first gig after having a major heart operation.

"Years of drinking had swollen my heart to the point of bursting," he recalls. "It reached the point where the doctors gave me between six days and six weeks to live. They installed a defibrillator to keep my heart from stopping and keep it beating at a steady rate. After the operation I began therapy and miraculously my heart started to heal. I was out of circulation for four months before I picked up a guitar. It was the darkest period of my life — but in 2001 I agreed to play at Michael's birthday celebration.

“This was my first gig since the operation so I was looking forward to it. It certainly turned out to be memorable."

Read the entire report from Sunday Mercury.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).