Aerosmith’s Joe Perry was hospitalized over the weekend after collapsing at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. The Lawrence-raised guitarist was at the New York City arena to stage a surprise performance at Billy Joel’s concert before his medical scare.
After playing “Walk This Way” onstage with The Piano Man, Perry passed out backstage in his dressing room. Paramedics worked on the 68-year-old rocker for more than a half hour before wheeling him out of the venue on a stretcher and rushing to a New York hospital, where he remained as of yesterday.
“Following a guest performance during Billy Joel’s show last night at Madison Square Garden, Joe Perry 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 rep for Perry said in a statement. “This morning Perry remains in the hospital where he is alert and responsive. The Aerosmith guitarist will be unable to appear today at Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp in Florida and apologizes to those attending. Perry is expected to return to the road later this month.”
Sources also told TMZ that Perry had been having breathing issues in the last few weeks, with the magazine reporting that lung congestion could be a contributing factor to the episode.
Back in 2016, Perry also collapsed onstage at the amphitheater on Coney Island Boardwalk, also in New York. At the time, he was performing with the Hollywood Vampires, another rock group he formed with Johnny Depp and Alice Cooper.
Perry, fellow Aerosmith bandmate Brad Whitford and Gary Cherone of Extreme had been planning on kicking off a 10-date tour at the end of this month. And the whole Aerosmith crew, including frontman Steven Tyler, are intending to start their Las Vegas residency in spring. So here’s to hoping that Perry and his health will have what it takes to make those upcoming gigs.
