Phil Perry Recovering After Collapsing On Stage; Gets Defibrillator
Smooth jazz vocalist Phil Perry is expected to be released today, October 26, from Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Conn, with a new defibrillator after collapsing on stage on Friday, October 23, at the John Lyman Center. He was performing with Pieces of a Dream.
“First of all, I’m alive,” says Perry, 57. “I’m in the hospital, not the morgue. Thank God. I don’t want to be here, and I am really not looking forward to more tests. But I’m alive. I fainted on stage in the middle of a song – the last one, thankfully. It happened so fast. … Your prayers are working. I can eat, talk on the phone, do updates. It’s just all these tubes, man! I’ll be okay, but keep the prayers coming.”
Perry says he is doing fine and will be back on the road soon. “My heart is wired like the Energizer Bunny, with a nifty little defibrillator to keep me on beat and keep me on my feet.”
Perry, who lives in Southern California, this summer joined Norman Brown’s Summer Storm tour, and is scheduled to perform in January on the annual Dave Koz & Friends at Sea cruise. His most recent CD, offered earlier this month, is a duets project with Tony Award-winner Melba Moore, The Gift of Love. Perry has also started planning his next solo project, which he says will be inspired from his love of Brazilian music. That CD would be scheduled for 2010.