Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil is opening up about a terrifying health battle that nearly took him off the stage for good.
In a candid interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the 64-year-old rocker revealed he suffered a stroke the day after Christmas.
“I had a stroke,” Neil said. “My whole left side went out.”
Neil explained that he went to bed feeling fine on Christmas night, only to wake up to the life-threatening scare. The incident forced Mötley Crüe to delay their Park MGM residency, originally slated for March and April, and push it back to Sept. 12 through Oct. 3 while he underwent a medical procedure and began recovery.
“I had to learn to walk again, and that was tough,” Neil admitted. “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.’”
The singer described months of physical therapy, starting from being carried to the bathroom, to using a wheelchair, then a walker, then a cane. Now, he’s finally walking unaided.
“It’s like a full-time job getting back to where you feel good again,” he said. While his voice wasn’t affected, he admitted it took time to retrain his brain to tell his legs how to move. “You try to walk but it doesn’t come out right.”
Neil says he’s even learned how to run again. “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.”
The health scare isn’t the only setback he’s faced in recent years. In October 2021, Neil broke several ribs after falling off stage during a performance in Tennessee.
Despite it all, he’s determined to keep rocking. As Neil put it, “Mötley canceled the first part of the residency so I could get better. And now, I’m ready.”
The Lord was with him.