“I had a stroke,” Neil tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “My whole left side went out.” The rocker says he felt fine when he went to sleep Christmas night, with the health scare hitting him in his sleep, which he discovered when he was unable to get out of bed or walk, among other things, when he woke up the next morning.
“I had to learn to walk again, and that was tough,” Neil says. “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 first move, Neil says, was, “Motley canceled the first part of the (residency) so I could get better,” which meant doing physical therapy for months from his home in Nashville.
“I went from people carrying me to the bathroom, because I couldn’t walk myself, finally to a wheelchair,” Neil explains. “I graduated to a walker, and then I had a cane. Now I don’t need anything. But it’s like a full-time job getting back to where you feel good again.”
“It takes a while to get your brain to start moving your legs, for them to do what your brain wants to do. You try to walk but it doesn’t come out right.”
Motley Crue launched its residency this weekend at Dolve Live At Park MGM, where it will run until October 3.
The Los Angeles band just issued their latest greatest-hits compilation “From The Beginning.”
Pick up some Motley Crue for your collection here.