Phil Vassar is returning to touring just more than two years after he suffered a heart attack that nearly took his life.
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Actually, it was not just a heart attack. The 62-year-old revealed in a recent interview with Forbes that the heart attack was followed, several days later, by a stroke. Looking back, he said there were signs. Vassar told Forbes he doesn’t drink or smoke, and worked out, but he was feeling tired.
“I mean how can you have three-percent body fat and still not feel well?” he said.
Vassar said an assistant suggested that maybe he was working out too hard, but instead of getting checked, he tried to work through it.
“And then it happened,” he told Forbes. “I was at my girlfriend’s house and went into sudden cardiac arrest. She started beating on my chest and called 9-1-1, asking them what to do. The paramedics got there within 10-to-15 minutes, but it took them a long time to get my heart beating. They put me in the ambulance, and I coded again on the way to Vanderbilt.”
Three days later, he told Forbes, he suffered the stroke.
“I don’t remember anything about the heart attack,” he said. “The first memory I have is in Atlanta in rehab. It was like, what happened? I spent the next five months doing rehab, trying to remember stuff and learning how to walk. But luckily, it all came back relatively quickly.”
Vassar told Forbes his doctor blamed genetics for the heart attack and said his physical strength helped him survive.
“My doctors said it was a miracle and doctors don’t say that,” he told Forbes. “He said I’m alive because I was in good shape.”
And now he is ready to go back out touring with six new songs to go with all the other hits from his 25-year career.
“I’m so happy I’m here and can still do what I love,” he said. “I’m so blessed to be alive and I don’t take it for granted. I love playing with my band and can’t wait to get back out there and rock the frick’n free world.”