Dave Grohl famously toured with a broken leg, and Pete Townshend once impaled his hand on his Stratocaster's whammy bar. But for sheer 'the show must go on' determination, Snow Patrol guitarist and keyboardist Johnny McDaid's recent exploits take some beating.
Snow Patrol, best known for their hits Chasing Cars and Run, have been touring Europe in support of new album The Forest is the Path.
Talking to Irish radio station RTE, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody revealed that McDaid managed most of a tour with one broken hand, and then topped that by performing in Belfast with both hands injured.
"Johnny McDaid had hurt his hands at the start of the tour. We were going from Switzerland to Frankfurt on a train. Johnny got his hand caught in a door and it wrecked his hand. He ended up getting surgery on his hand. Never missed a show," marvelled Lightbody, to the amazement of RTE host Brendan O'Connor.
"Then the Thursday night in Belfast, at midnight or so, he fell and wrecked his knuckles on his other hand," Lightbody continued. "When we came in for soundcheck on Friday, he couldn't move the fingers on his right hand, and he still played the show on Friday night."
Fan footage from the Friday concert shows McDaid looking spritely. Although he holds his picking hand fingers somewhat gingerly, he generally does not look like a man with hand injuries.
This is not the first mishap to befall the guitarist. Snow Patrol cancelled shows in 2019, including a Glastonbury Festival performance, because McDaid had "a serious problem with his neck." Given his evident invincibility, we can only wonder how serious Johnny's injuries were on that occasion.
Other recent rockstar injuries include Kirk Hammett's busted knee, Sophie Lloyd almost losing a finger, and Nuno Bettencourt also trashing his knee.
