Rocker Paul Rodgers 'Couldn't Speak' After Health Crisis
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Paul Rodgers performs onstage during the 2023 CMT Music Awards at Moody Center on April 02, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
Paul Rodgers is opening up about the previous health crisis that almost took away his ability to sing.
The legendary musician—who has fronted several bands, including Bad Company and Free—recently got candid about the massive health scare that plagued his career just a few years back.
"I couldn't speak," the 73-year-old rocker revealed in a new interview with CBS Mornings where Rodgers talked publicly for the first time about a series of strokes he suffered between 2016 and 2019.
"I'd prepare something in my mind and I'd say it, but that isn't what came out," he explained. "I'd go, 'What the heck did I just say?'"
His wife, Cynthia Kereluk Rodgers revealed that Rodgers ultimately suffered 11 minor strokes and 2 major strokes. "It was terrifying," she said of the experience.
"All I wanted to be able to do was walk and talk with him again," Cynthia, 61, stated. "That's all I asked for."
For the first time, Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers is talking about the two major and 11 minor strokes he had that nearly took away his ability to sing.
He and his wife, Cynthia, told @AnthonyMasonCBS why his new album is “a miracle” and how music helped him heal. pic.twitter.com/OQ7QXFQwEM— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) September 27, 2023
The pair went on to explain that Rodgers' major stroke in 2019 required the singer to need surgery, and he later underwent a procedure to remove plaque clogging a carotid artery.
"They cut the neck and [the surgeon] said that he was very careful because he knew I was a singer," Rodgers explained in the interview. "When you cut the neck it's very close to the vocal cords."
The couple—who have been married since 2007—went on to reveal that they were warned beforehand that the "All Right Now" singer may not make it out of the surgery alive. But the doctor even played Rodgers' Bad Company music while performing the procedure for some good juju.
"I thought that music would be his way back," his wife said of Rodger's healing journey, though it took Rodgers six months before he picked up the guitar again.
"Each thing was a step forward, each thing that I did was an achievement," Rodgers stated, while he remembered thinking, "Oh I can do this I can sing," as his health began to improve.
He eventually started working on his brand new solo album, Midnight Rose, which he is now calling "a miracle."
