Dead KennedysPunk rock icon and former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra is currently in a stable condition after suffering a haemorrhagic stroke over the weekend.
News of Biafra’s health scare was shared on social media earlier today, with a statement explaining that the Saturday, March 7th event was caused due to high blood pressure.
”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,” Biafra recounted in his own statement. “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!’,” he added. “I still have a lot of great stuff in me, but right now I gotta lotta of rehabbing to do.”
A spokesperson for Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label, noted that the musician is currently in a stable condition, but remains hospitalised. “We are all just very thankful he is okay and getting the care that he needs,” the statement added.
Biafra – who was born Eric Boucher – rose to fame in the late '70s as the enigmatic frontman of San Francisco punk outfit the Dead Kennedys.
Coinciding with then-21-year-old Biafra’s failed run for Mayor of San Francisco in 1979, the group were famed for their outspoken political lyrics and intense performances, a remained a prominent presence on the punk scene until their split in 1986.
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
While Biafra has remained active in the world of music since (including spoken word releases, and performing as a member of Lard and Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine), he has repeatedly refused to reunite with his former Dead Kennedys bandmates.
A dispute over royalties between the band emerged in the late '90s, with Biafra and Alternative Tentacles forced to pay outstanding royalties and punitive damages. The group would reunite in 2001, albeit without Biafra, and since 2008, Ron Greer has served as the group's vocalist.
Just last year, founding guitarist East Bay Ray claimed that Biafra remains the sticking point when it comes to the question of a reunion of the group’s classic line-up.
“It’s not an issue for me or Klaus [Flouride, bassist],” Ray explained. “It’s Biafra that turns down any offers for us to do something; we don’t have any problem.
“He got caught with his hands in the till and wants to blame us for getting caught, but he should never have put his hands in there in the first place.”
