From Nile Rodgers to Slash: Six musicians who have come back from the dead
A musician loves to party just as a fish loves water. Although things might have changed somewhat in today’s world, for a long time, some of our favourite artists were known as much for their hedonistic proclivities as they were for their artistic efforts. It’s a strange case, but it’s true, with everyone from Keith Richards to GG Allin just as famed for their hard-partying lifestyles as they are for their lauded back catalogues.
There’s something about professional musicians being drawn to the high-octane, edgier side of life that has given us, the fan, many of our favourite moments in music and culture. One of the most famous is undoubtedly the late drummer of The Who, Keith Moon’s 21st birthday party that featured a large-scale food fight, toilets being blown up and a Lincoln Continental being driven into the swimming pool.
Elsewhere, John Lennon had his “lost weekend” between 1973 and 1974, a year of revelry that saw him go practically AWOL alongside his most unrelenting partner in crime, Harry Nilsson. Outside of this generation of rockers, the likes of Mötley Crüe, Rick James and The Libertines have all done their fair share of hellraising.
Whilst these often give us hilarious anecdotes to recount when locked in conversation with other self-professed musos, there have been numerous occasions where musicians have come back from the dead. Whether it has to do with their lifestyle choices or factors out of their control, some of the best in the business have lived such storied lives that they can also boast that they’ve literally been resurrected.
Join us then as we list six musicians who have returned from the dead.
Six musicians who have returned from the dead:
Dave Gahan
Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan has been on the brink numerous times, to the point that he earned the nickname ‘The Cat’ from paramedics. In 1993, he survived a drug-induced heart attack whilst performing as well as a suicide attempt, but this was only the start.
The most intense moment came on May 28th, 1996, when Gahan’s drug-taking threatened to send him to oblivion. That day, he overdosed on a speedball, a potent mix of heroin and cocaine, at a Los Angeles hotel. His heart stopped for two minutes until paramedics eventually revived him.
When he came to, he asked one of the responders if he’s overdosed again. However, Gahan was then served a shocking dose of reality, with them responding, “No, David, you died”, per his account in the Chicago Tribune. They told him, “You flatlined for a couple of minutes. You were actually dead.”
Unsurprisingly, Gahan changed his lifestyle for good after this period.
Phil Anselmo
He might be one of the most controversial musicians out there, but former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo has his fair share of tales to tell, including the one that describes his brush with death. The story goes that when the groove metallers were in their heyday in the mid-1990s, he suffered from severe pain due to ruptured discs in his back and started to self-medicate with painkillers, alcohol and heroin.
In July 1996, after a show in Dallas, Texas, Anselmo suffered a cardiac arrest because of a heroin overdose. He survived, and only four days later, he issued a statement that declared: “I, Philip H. Anselmo […] injected a lethal dose of heroin into my arm, and died for four to five minutes”.
Elsewhere, he quipped: “As a guy who’s croaked a few times, I’ll let you know straight up, there wasn’t much there. And if there was, it ain’t memorable. It was pretty peaceful from what I remember.”
Slash
For an extended period, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash was one of the hardest partiers in music, with him having such an intense trip that he streaked on a golf course. However, it wasn’t all fun and games for the guitar hero.
One day in San Francisco, when on tour with Guns N’ Roses when they were at the peak of their powers, Slash got in touch with some dealers, who visited him in his hotel room. He later told The Guardian in 2004: “They had everything, and I took all of it”. He then started walking to the elevator but collapsed in front of a cleaner.
Remarkably, as has been reported, Slash’s heart stopped beating for eight minutes while he lay on the floor of the hotel’s hallway. When the paramedics arrived, they injected adrenaline into his chest, and he came around. He didn’t change his ways until 2001 when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a form of congestive heart failure due to his years of alcohol and drug abuse.
Josh Homme
Surprisingly, this one isn’t to do with narcotics. When suffering from a knee problem in 2010, the Queens of the Stone Age frontman checked into the hospital for what everyone thought was a simple surgery. However, during the procedure, the rocker started to experience complications with the anaesthesia and choked on the oxygen tubes in his throat. He flatlined and was dead for a number of minutes before the doctors revived him.
The story wasn’t over, though. The stoner rock pioneer then had to combat an intense MRSA infection. Emerging from that episode, he said it gave him a new perspective, describing it as “amazing to be alive”.
Al Jourgensen
Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen is a master of industrial music. Aside from the punishing form of music he creates, he is most famous for tattoos, piercings and drug use, which since 2019, he has restricted to marijuana and magic mushrooms.
His brush with death did not come via misadventure, though. It has been reported that the frontman had been vomiting blood for some time but thought nothing of it. The underlying problem continued until he collapsed and suffered a seizure, when he was taken to the ICU and flatlined a handful of times, and was shocked back to life. The doctors finally found that his stomach and intestines were covered with 13 ulcers, one of which was located over an artery and had ruptured, which caused him to die for a moment.
Nile Rodgers
Disco legend and Chic bandleader Nile Rodgers loved to party, but one day his body had enough, and it started the hitmaker of his route to cleaning up. One of the last times he consumed drugs and alcohol was during the mid-1990s at a birthday bash for ‘The Queen of Pop’, Madonna. That night, he took cocaine and alcohol and died on eight occasions. Remarkably, it was later reported that he only came back to life when the doctors filled out the paperwork to declare him dead.
Strangely, although the incident frightened Rodgers, it wasn’t enough to make him stop; it was hearing how terribly he performed under the influence that was the decider. Hearing his performances back, he felt humiliated and checked into rehab the next, staying there for eight months. Ever since then, he’s been on the straight and narrow.
