Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil says he suffered a stroke last December that left him needing to “learn to walk again.”
The metal band postponed a Las Vegas residency earlier in the year which they are set to commence tonight, September 12.
Speaking to local paper Las Vegas Review-Journal, 64-year-old frontman Neil said he realized he was having a medical emergency when he physically couldn’t get out of bed the morning after Christmas.
“I had a stroke,” said Neil. “My whole left side went out.”
When the shows were first postponed, the band announced simply that Neil needed to undergo a “required medical procedure.”
Neil explained that the statement downplayed the severity of his condition and the extent of his subsequent recovery.
“I had to learn to walk again, and that was tough,” he said. “The doctors said they didn’t think I’d be able to go back on stage again. I go, ‘No, no, I’m gonna do it. Watch and see.’”
He continued: “I went from people carrying me to the bathroom, because I couldn’t walk myself, finally to a wheelchair. I graduated to a walker, and then I had a cane. Now I don’t need anything. But it’s like a full-time job getting back to where you feel good again.
“It takes a while to get your brain to start moving your legs, for them to do what your brain wants to do. You try to walk but it doesn’t come out right.”
Neil added that he’s been doing physical therapy at his home in Nashville, including a “ladder” agility drill.
“I’ve doing that a lot, a lot of running — I learned how to run again,” he said. “It’s been tough, but I’m back, I’m 90-95 percent to where I was before, and it’s going to be great.”
Earlier this year, Neil’s private jet crashed at an airport in Arizona. He was not onboard at the time.
Mötley Crüe rose to fame in the early Eighties and are one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time.
The group was formed by bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by Neil and guitarist Mick Mars. They soon became known for their hard-partying lifestyles as well as their flamboyant live shows.
In 2019 they were the subject of a Netflix film, The Dirt, based on their controversial memoir of the same name and starring Iwan Rheon, Douglas Booth, Machine Gun Kelly and Daniel Webber.
