After recently being ushered offstage due to a medical emergency, former Eagles guitarist Don Felder is sharing his side of the story about what really went down last Thursday during his Rock Legends Cruise performance.
“I have always said that I'm going to rock till I drop. I never [thought] it would be in the middle of Tequila Sunrise, instead of like [Life in the Fast] Lane or Hotel [California] or something really fun,” he quips in an interview with Sal Cerrincione from Heartland Radio.
“I was feeling fine before the show – all day long, I felt naturally my 100 percent or my 99.9 percent, and I went onstage, and I started the introduction forTequila Sunrise. I stepped back from the microphone, and I just was like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. This feels like acid.’ I just felt like I'm leaving my body.”
Felder recounts how he looked over to his girlfriend, who was standing at the side of the stage and “knows every look I've ever made to her.”
She saw him losing his balance, and within seconds, “came right out on stage, grabbed me and had to get me offstage. She saved me from one of the most embarrassing things, which would have been to fall down onstage by myself. So I owe her big time.
“We got down to the medical room, and they did a heart check and they did all this stuff. They realized that I was just dehydrated, [and] they put me on an IV. 30 minutes later, I was back making bad jokes, and everybody in the place was laughing.”
Guitar legend Robin Trower, who was also part of the panel, then chimes in with a similar on-stage experience.
“Five years ago, that was the last time I was touring in the States,” he recounts. “And same thing, dehydration. Nearly collapsed on stage, but managed to make it to the side and then collapse. It's scary, though, when it happens, because you think, ‘Is this where I finish up?’ but thank God I didn't!”
