Legendary vocalist Odetta is in the ICU at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital and is currently on dialysis, according to a statement from her manager. The singer went to the hospital for a routine check-up on Saturday; Sunday she went into kidney failure. She's currently in critical condition, and her manager says that she'll be in intensive care for at least another week. [Pollstar via The Daily Swarm]
Country legend—hell, music legend—Merle Haggard is recovering from a Monday trip under the knife to remove a cancerous growth from his lung. Haggard is one of the few left from country's outlaw era and he's still making pretty good records today, so let's enjoy a few of his best tracks while wishing him a swift return to health.
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My Morning Jacket has postponed two shows in Chicago because of injuries lead singer Jim James sustained after falling offstage in Iowa City on Tuesday night. Doctors who examined James after the mishap ordered him to stay in bed for two to three weeks so he could heal. [Crickets]
Rag On Thom Yorke, Get Struck Down By Illness
Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler—who, you may recall, made some less-than-rapturous comments about Radiohead a few weeks back, to the Internet's collective freakout—has been in the hospital with pancreatitis, forcing the band to cancel its UK tour. In unrelated news, every message-board poster took a second to reflect before posting about how they were kind of underwhelmed by that all-laser video for "House Of Cards," because really, it just kinda looked like something they saw at a planetarium when they were kids, you know? [Pitchfork]
Janet Jackson had to postpone her concert in Montreal last night after being rushed to a local hospital shortly before showtime—so close to curtain, in fact, that some concertgoers were inside Montreal's Bell Centre when news of the postponement came down. "That's never happened before in Bell Centre history," a spokesman for the show's promoter said. Hey, at least something sorta-historic came out of this tour, right? [National Post]
According to doctors at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., tattooed drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM are expected to fully recover from the burns they suffered after a Saturday-morning plane crash that killed four people, including Barker's assistant. Barker and DJ AM were both in critical but stable condition as of Sunday morning. [MTV]
Nine Inch Nails has postponed tonight's show in Worcester, Mass., because Trent Reznor has been suffering from a "recurrent throat ailment," the second time in a week that said illness has resulted in a last-minute rescheduling. (Saturday's show at the Target Center in Minneapolis was rescheduled to late November; the band's US tour opened on July 26.) "Just want to personally say how sorry I am to have to do this. I never take postponing a show lightly and if there were any possible way I could pull this off I would. This is a very frustrating and maddening situation for me and I appreciate your understanding. I'll make it up to you," Reznor said on his official site. Here's hoping he isn't going the "pay what you like" route for his health insurance... [nin.com]
Though they haven't been widespread, there was rumor over the last week as to the condition of Tabu Ley Rochereau, the Congolese singer and band leader who is one of the absolute great pop talents of the last 50 years. (If you need convincing, go straight to Sterns Music's The Voice of Lightness: Congo Classics 1961-1977. It's the album I have put on for pleasure more than almost any other in the past 12 months.) A few days ago, Ken Braun of Sterns Music emailed that he'd gotten indirect word from a former bandmate that Tabu Ley is in Brussels' St. Luc's Hospital; he hadn't gotten word of his condition. Tabu Ley is in his late 60s and in addition to music has spent several years working in the Kinshasa government; still, nothing has reached English Google as of yet. [Tabu Ley's Sterns Music discography]
Euroboy, the Turbonegro guitarist whose family probably calls him "Knut Schreiner," has issued a statement about the "serious illness" that forced the band to cancel multiple tour dates, including Coachella (leaving bassist Happy-Tom with time to find boats full of pot while surfing in California): "In March I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, which is a 'lucky' version of lymphoma cancer (90% percent get healed, according to Wikipedia and other and more reliable health information sources). Since then I've been undergoing chemotherapy every 14th day. That has kept me out of business for a while now, not being able to tour, but things have gone a lot better than feared. Last week they found out that my cure has so far been successful and my chances are as good as it gets." Unsurprisingly, not even cancer could make a member of Turbonegro lose their sense of humor.
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Sly Stone's halting trip down the comeback trail has been derailed yet again, with the legendary soul singer canceling a Saturday performance in Chicago "for health reasons." [DeRogatis]
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Reigning American Idol Jordin Sparks has is currently suffering from a vocal cord hemorrhage that forced her to cancel a few shows over the weekend and may knock her out of commission for a while. "Because of the risk of permanent vocal cord damage, Sparks has been ordered to strict vocal rest and will not be able to perform anywhere until her condition improves," a flack for Penn State, where one of Sparks' canceled performances was scheduled to take place, told the New York Post.
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After singing "Little Sparrow" on last night's American Idol, the newly shorn David Cook complained of heart palpitations and was subsequently taken to the hospital mid-show. Cook is "doing fine" after treatment for high blood pressure and is currently recuperating at the compound where Fox keeps all of the talent show's remaining contestants. (Did this news break during the post-show voting period on the West Coast? Because that would really swing the sympathy vote.) [People]
Chad Clark, the guitarist and songwriter for the terrific Washington, D.C. band the Beauty Pill, is having open-heart surgery later today after being diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy. From the band's blog: "[The] surgery involves a guy I just met holding my heart in his hands and tinkering it with my chest sliced open. So, yeah, make no mistake: this is a life-and-death moment for yours truly." [The Beauty Pill's MySpace blog]
And the award for cheeriest press release about a medical problem goes to... Dolly Parton! Dolly is taking six to eight weeks off to recover from a "back condition" and postponing her tour, which was supposed to kick off Feb. 28 in Minneapolis. Her impossibly breezy thoughts—complete with boob joke!—after the jump.
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Qui's David Yow was hospitalized after a show last week, and as it turns out he wasn't the only member of his band in need of medical treatment; guitarist/vocalist Matt Cronk is also in the hospital after suffering three strokes and is being diagnosed with an "inflamed, infected, and strained heart." The band's third member, Paul Christiansen, is having a karaoke benefit in Los Angeles on Friday night to help with his bandmates' hospital bills. [Pitchfork]
David Yow was hospitalized with a collapsed lung on Friday night after his band Qui played a show at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. He's expected to make a full recovery, but the band's tour—which was supposed to take them around Europe through March—has been canceled for that purpose. [Pitchfork / Photo via MySpace]
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