The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith is "80 per cent recovered" after quadruple bypass heart surgery.
The 75-year-old musician was taken to a medical facility last month after suffering from congestive heart failure and while recovery has been tough, Michael believes he is on the mend,
He told Rolling Stone: "I was using the words ‘heart attack’ for a while. But I’m told now that I didn’t have one. It was congestive heart failure. It has taken me four weeks to climb out of it. If anybody ever comes up to you on the street and offers you [bypass surgery] for free, turn them down. It hurts.
"It’s this complete other community of the dead and nearly dead. It’s frightening. There’s also a lot of pain involved and I didn’t like that. You can’t cough and you can’t walk and you can’t get up. And you’re hooked to these gadgets that are annoying. I didn’t even know where I was for a couple of weeks.
"I think, candidly, I’m back to 80 percent. I feel like I’m increasing exponentially daily, or at least by orders of five or six percent at a time. I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My thinking is clear and I know who I am and where I am. It all feels like a natural healing process."
Michael was forced to postpone the remaining four dates of ‘The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show Tour’ due to his surgery and admitted he was only a few dates into the tour when he first started feeling unwell.
He said: "I was getting weaker and weaker and I couldn’t get my breath," he says. "When we got to Lake Tahoe and then the high altitude of Denver, I couldn’t get out of bed and I couldn’t breathe. It was just the business of wanting to take a big, deep breath and not being able to do it."
Although he tried to keep going, keeping an oxygen tank to the side of the stage and using it whenever his singing partner Micky Dolenz was taking lead vocals, he admitted that things soon got worse and by the time the tour came to Philadelphia on June 21st, he knew he had to take a break.
He said: "I didn’t collapse to the ground or anything like that. But I couldn’t breathe, so I sat down until I got my breath and then I knew the breath wasn’t gettable. That marked the end. People knew I couldn’t keep on like this. It was a road to hell."
The group’s tour manager Andrew Sandoval previously revealed Michael was "not feeling well", and said the tour dates would be rescheduled in January.
He wrote on Facebook: "I am sorry to report that the final 4 dates of The Monkees Tour will be postponed till January. Michael Nesmith has not been feeling well and will be recuperating in the meantime. We will return to the good clean fun as soon as possible. (sic)"
The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith recovering after quadruple bypass surgery
