Jello Biafra has been hospitalized after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke, according to a statement released March 9 by his label Alternative Tentacles.
The 67-year-old punk legend, best known as the frontman of Dead Kennedys, experienced the medical emergency on Saturday, March 7. The stroke was reportedly caused by high blood pressure.
Biafra said in a statement: “I hopped out of my bed because I needed to pee, and my left leg just collapsed under me and I fell to the floor. I couldn’t even break the fall with my left arm because it wasn’t working either. I tried to hop back up again, and I couldn’t. I realized I had “fallen and I can’t get up!”
“It was this point I thought, ‘Oh shit, I’m having a stroke!” I still have a lot of great stuff in me, but right now I gotta lotta rehabbing to do.”
“ello Biafra is currently hospitalized but stable. Speaking for the Alternative Tentacles family, we are all just very thankful he is okay and getting the care that he needs. We will update you all as we are able.”
Biafra rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the incendiary voice of Dead Kennedys, helping define American hardcore punk with politically charged songs and albums that remain hugely influential decades later. Through Alternative Tentacles, which he founded in 1979, Biafra has also played a key role in releasing underground punk, industrial, and experimental music.
Further updates on his condition are expected as he begins rehabilitation.
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