Musicians who have suffered permanent injuries

groundharp said:

This thread will feature musicians (including singers) who have suffered permanent physical injuries. This does NOT apply to mental disability, or to diseases such as MS -- musicians suffering from such ailments will not qualify for the thread unless they have been permanently injured as a result of an accident or intentional injury that by its nature cannot be completely recovered from (i.e. a broken leg would not qualify).

sparkmeister said:

Rick Allen - drummer for Def Leppard. Lost his left arm in a car accident mid career and carried on as a one armed drummer.

WiredChuck said:

His drumming improved, too.

I say that sincerely and respectfully

groundharp said:

In the mid-1980s, Rod De'Ath suffered a serious accident while running to catch a train, which led to the loss of one eye and some brain damage.

audiotom said:

Keith Emerson had very strong arthritis in his hands

some have speculated he took his life because of the intensity of this

groundharp said:

If you read my opening post, you would have seen that this doesn't qualify. Arthritis is a disease, not an injury.

eflatminor said:

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).

groundharp said: 

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).

ostrichfarm said:

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

Also, David Bowie's eye injury.

audiotom said:

Neil Young has suffered from a brain aneurism, polio, epilepsy and back pain

He has also seen the needle and the damage done

Farmer Mike said:

Steve Earle was put in a chokehold during a arrest and it messed his voice up for awhile.

There were also the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash injuries.

P(orf) said:

Maybe the least tasteful or interesting thread in memory, started by the most humorless OP. Should be eligible for some award that no one would ever want to win.

mark winstanley said:

Australian crawl's lead singer James Reyne broke both his arms just before appearing on tv for the first time in Australia

DetroitDoomsayer said:

He permanently broke his arms?

mark winstanley said:

i know it's not permanent, i just thought it was interesting in light of the topic

joepepitone said:

Would it be acceptable to include people like Randy Rhodes? His permanent injury resulted in his immediate death.