Clara Balzary/Warner Bros. RecordsRed Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis says he’s doing better after his recent hospitalization, and is now re-evaluating how he’s planning to take care of himself in the future.
Earlier this month, the Chili Peppers were forced to cancel their show at the last minute when Kiedis was taken to the hospital with severe stomach pains. Speaking to ET Canada, the singer, who’s 53, said, “It was a painful and sad thing to have to cancel shows, we don’t really do that. I’d rather play deathly ill than not at all but in this particular instance I was starting to go down to the ground…I got some help and now I’ve got to figure things out.”
He added, “I feel good, not great, but good”, noting, “I think I had to get sick to take a look at myself and get to the causes and conditions of my overall health.”
Describing his problem as an “inflammation in my guts,” Kiedis said that it was “incredibly painful,” and that he got a fever and passed out. Apparently, the inflammation was exacerbated by a recent virus, and scar tissue he had from past hernia operations.
“Lo and behold, I’m on the mend,” he said, but added, “I push pretty hard sometimes and I do take my health for granted on a certain level because I feel strong and capable…but every now and then, the body is like ‘you’re doing something wrong, either fix it or we’re gonna let you know about it.'”
“I think that my body let me know that I had to change my ways a little bit,” he noted.
The Chili Peppers’ new album The Getaway is due June 17. The band performs Sunday at the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, OH.
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