Musicians who have suffered permanent injuries

When Zappa was pushed off the Rainbow Stage in '71 he suffered a crushed larynx which lowered his voice permanently. Also his leg was broken in several places.
His leg was put in a cast for several months but it healed badly and the doctors wanted to break the leg again and reset it.
Zappa refused and the leg remained crooked which left him with back pains for the rest of his life.

 

Nic Jones



Received what were basically career ending injuries following a car crash in 1982

He remembers nothing of the gig at Glossop in February 1982, the road between Peterborough and March in Cambridgeshire on the way back, the lorry he collided with head-on while closing in on home. He was in a coma for weeks and in hospital for six months while they tried to reassemble him. "Everything on my right side was bust," he says cheerily. "Eyes, ears, arm. Elbow smashed to bits. Wrist. Everything had to be replaced. I've got a metal ****, a false eye, false teeth, everything is false. I'm an illusion. The only thing that wasn't bust was my guitar." At the time of the accident, Jones – then 35 – was at the top of his game.

However in 2011, he was able to return to performing, supported by his son Joe. If you've never heard it, check out the excellent "Penguin Eggs", Bob Dylan even ripped off a couple of his arrangements on Good As I Been To You.

[I hadn't realised until now that this forum automatically masks certain types of word. In case anyone gets the wrong end of the stick, it was a metal backside that he ended up with!]

 

Dennis Wilson had his throat injured in a beating from Stan Love and Rocky Pamplin. This is probably one of several reasons for the deterioration of his voice.

 

Setting aside the scolding schoolmarm tone of your response, I would point out that you are incorrect. Arthritis can be a result of injury.

While most forms of arthritis are indeed disease based, others can be caused by accidents or infections. Post-traumatic arthritis is a common form of osteoarthritis and occurs due to a physical injury of any kind to a joint. Infectious arthritis is when a bacterium, virus or fungus enters the joint and triggers inflammation. Examples of organisms that can infect joints are salmonella and shigella (food poisoning or contamination), chlamydia and gonorrhea (sexually transmitted diseases) and hepatitis C (a blood-to-blood infection, often through shared needles or transfusions).

Sooo...if you read your opening post, you will see arthritis can occur as a result of an accident or intentional injury. Just sayin'

 

I'll add Teddy Pendergrass: quadriplegic from an auto accident.

Also, David Bowie's eye injury.

 

Jim Pilster, drummer of The Cryan' Shames:

 

Victor Moulton of The Barbarians lost his left hand in an explosion when he was fourteen. In order to play the drums, he had a prosthetic hand that could hold a drumstick. You can see him in action here:

 

Sammy Davis Jr. and, less famously, Gunther Schuller both lost an eye in accidents.

Woody Shaw lost an arm when he fell onto subway tracks.

Tina Fey was slashed across the face with a knife as a child. (Maybe not someone we think of as a musician first and foremost, but she's gotten paid to sing in public, so...)

 

But did we get the real reason behind it...?

 

Bheki Mseleku lost a finger.

The band Candiria's tour van was rear ended by a semi truck and all the band members suffered severe injuries.

Mastodon's tour bus drove off a bridge.

Frank Zappa was pushed offstage at the Rainbow in 1971 suffering sever leg and neck injuries.

 

Hank Garland

 

It's not 100% certain how Blind Willie Johnson lost his sight, but the most widely-accepted story is that his stepmother threw lye in his face. In any event it happened in his childhood (not at birth).

Moondog also lost his sight in an accident.

 

Jan Berry??

 

Ray Sawyer gave up music to become a logger and on the way crashed the car and went back to music.

 

Michael Jackson

 

Adam Doll, bass player in Dillinger Escape Plan, was paralyzed in a car accident. From memory it was a minor fender bender but he was leaning over to pick up a CD. I think he stayed with the band for a little longer doing some production and sampling.

 

U2's Bono suffered major injuries in a bicycle crash in November of 2014 forcing the postponement of their tour. The damage to his arm and collarbone resulted in him no longer being able to play guitar, something the rest of the band joked about as being a good thing.

 

OK, you make a good point. It's just that I don't want to allow one type of arthritis for this thread while disallowing another. I meant for this thread to feature musicians who have been permanently affected by some sort of traumatic injury directly due to either accidents or intentional injuries (which can be self-inflicted or the result of an assault by someone else). I would label post-traumatic arthritis and repetitive stress injuries under the classification of "syndromes". Those sorts of disabling factors are FAR different from having a finger chopped off (J. Garcia), or a severe head injury that results in permanent brain damage (J. Berry).

 

I think Woody Shaw is a bit of an exception here as the subway incident certainly ended his playing career and indirectly led to his death a few months later, due to complications from surgery and general ill-health.

Wingy Manone is maybe a better example of someone who overcame a similar injury.

 

Fair point -- though I seem to remember reading a report that Shaw was trying to resume playing (or at least practicing) after the subway incident, since it was his left arm that was lost and a trumpeter can play one-handed with only moderately less fluency. But then his health went from bad to worse, and that was that...

 

Russian classical guitar player Alexey Zimakov had his fingers (both hands) chilblained. Therefore, they had to be amputated. Zimakov arrived late at home one night. Not being able to get in the house for some reason, he fell asleep on the outside, and his fingers froze.

Keith Emerson had a condition called focal dystonia, which is, basically, a involuntary movement that affects a specific part of the body - in his case, his right hand -, preventing him from playing in a natural way. Insisting in trying to play, in this case, can lead to some injuries.

I am an amateur guitar player and have focal dystonia myself.

As for Dave Mustaine, if I remember correctly, he fell asleep with his arm in a bad position over a chair, which caused the nerve damage.

 

This is the wildest thread I've ever seen!

 

Brian Eno was hospitalized from a bicycle accident

While listening in bed and not able to move the sound of a near by stereo was just audible and came in and out of focus. From there he developed Ambient music

The world has never recovered

 

Pat Martino had a brain aneurysm in 1980 and after the surgery to fix it, ended up with amnesia. He had to re-learn how to play guitar, which took several years.

Mark Linkous had a adverse reaction to medication that led to him going into a coma with heart and kidney failure. His legs were without circulation for a time, which almost led to amputation. He had to use leg braces for the rest of his life.

Dr. John was injured his left ring finger in a fight and was forced to switch from the guitar to playing piano.

 

Dr. John had a hand injury that ended his career as a guitarist. He made out ok on piano.