Aerosmith’s Joe Perry was rushed from Madison Square Garden Saturday night after a guest appearance with Billy Joel.
As first reported by TMZ, the guitarist had joined Joel onstage to perform Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’. It was one of a string of surprise appearances at Joel’s month-long residency with the iconic New York venue.
As the footage below reveals, the Aerosmith classic went down a treat, but after retiring backstage Perry collapsed.
Paramedics were quickly called to the dressing room where the 68-year-old rocker was administered a tracheal tube to clear his airway. Perry was then placed on a stretcher and ushered out of the venue to a nearby hospital.
“Following a guest performance during Billy Joel’s show last night at Madison Square Garden, Joe Perry experienced shortness of breath and was treated backstage by paramedics who gave the guitarist oxygen and used a tracheal tube to clear his airway before taking him to a hospital,” an official statement reads. “This morning, Perry remains in the hospital where he is alert and responsive. The Aerosmith guitarist will be unable to appear today at Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp in Florida and apologizes to those attending. Perry is expected to return to the road later this month.”
According to the most recent update from TMZ Perry is awake and stable. The site also shares that source close to the artist has revealed that he has been experiencing “breathing issues for the last few weeks and it came to a head last night.”
It’s not the first time Perry has collapsed backstage. He also took ill while performing in Brooklyn with his own band The Hollywood Vampires in 2016.
