Aerosmith’s Joe Perry Rushed to Hospital
By Jem Aswad
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry was rushed to the hospital after performing with Billy Joel at New York’s Madison Square Garden Saturday night. He remained in the hospital Sunday, according to a rep, where he is “alert and responsive.”
“Following a guest performance during Billy Joel’s show last night at Madison Square Garden, experienced shortness of breath and was treated backstage by paramedics who gave the guitarist oxygen and used a tracheal tube to clear his airway before taking him to a hospital,” a statement from Perry’s rep reads. “This morning Perry remains in the hospital where he is alert and responsive. The 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.”
According to TMZ , Perry had just finished a guest spot performing “Walk This Way” with Joel, went back to his dressing room and collapsed. According to the report, paramedics rushed to the scene and worked on Perry, 68, for approximately 40 minutes in his dressing room before transporting him to the hospital. Joel was still onstage and unaware of Perry’s condition.
Perry collapsed onstage in New York in 2016 after performing with his side group Hollywood Vampires, which also features Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp. While initial reports said he’d suffered a cardiac arrest, the cause was later specified as exhaustion and dehydration.
Cooper spoke about that collapse with Rolling Stone .
“Aerosmith does two shows a week, but we were on our eighth show in nine days, and I’m used to working like that,” the singer said. “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 and everybody else. I think Joe was not ready for that kind of pace.
“We were doing 25 to 30 songs with no break,” he continues. “You’re in fourth gear, and there’s no 24-hour resting period. I think it just caught up with him. He finally got up there onstage, dehydrated. And I think he was exhausted. He told me the night before he hadn’t eaten in two days.”
Last month Perry announced a solo tour in support of his latest album that begins late in November and runs through December. His group, which also features fellow Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford and Extreme’s Gary Cherone on lead vocals, toured earlier this year in support of Perry’s “Sweetzerland Manifesto,” released in January. He also toured North America and Europe with the Hollywood Vampires last summer.
Aerosmith announced a 2019 Las Vegas residency called “Deuces Are Wild” that is scheduled to run from April through July.
