Steven Tyler On His Fall: 'I'm Plain Grateful I Didn't Break My Neck!'
Aerosmith frontman broke left shoulder and needed 20 stitches after falling off stage
Updated 2:16 AM EDT, Fri, Aug 14, 2009
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler took a bad fall on August 5, but the star only blames himself for the slip-up.
"I zigged when I should have zagged," Steven said in a statement to Access Hollywood, describing the scene when he fell from the stage during an Aerosmith performance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.
"It was one of the best shows we've played in a long time! The band I was slammin' and I was lovin' every minute of it!" Steven said, adding that the performance came after a one-hour rain delay.
The performance was further disrupted by what Steven described as fuses blowing, causing "COMPLETE AUDIO SYSTEM FAILURE!" – but he didn't want to stop the rock.
"You can even see one [of] the amps frying on YouTube," he continued. "I wasn't gonna go hide under the big top and play 'ROCK STAR' and wait for everything to be fixed. I wanted to go out to the crowd to continue the show."
But then, he slipped.
"I was doing the Tyler shuffle and… as I live on the edge… I fell off the edge!" he said. "I landed upside down, and after twenty stitches on the back of my head, and a broken left shoulder, I just want to say that I' m plain grateful that I didn't break my neck!"
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Still, he added it was only the fourth time he'd fallen during his legendary career.
"In truth, after thousands of live shows, falling off the edge four times ain't too bad," he said, concluding by thanking the fans, his crew, the Buffalo Chip staff and the Sturgis Police Department and Medvac helicopter crew for whisking him away to the Rapid City hospital.
"Most of all," he said, "I want to thank the angel on my shoulder."
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MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Rock - Hospitalizations - Music - Celebrities
Copyright Access Hollywood
First Published: Aug 14, 2009 12:46 AM EDT
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