Directly after waking up from artificial disk surgery on Tuesday, Yoshiki of X Japan immediately tried to record a new song.
The singer underwent the emergency surgery after neurosurgeons realized his neck had undergone severe damage caused by his intense drumming style. The musician had been diagnosed with a cervical foraminal stenosis in 2009, which led to a cervical laminectomy as well as a cervical foraminotomy – two minimally invasive spinal surgeries. Even after the surgeries, the drummer experienced a herniated disk last year, leading to a second diagnosis of cervical foraminal stenosis and the recommendation for emergency disk replacement surgery.
According to a press release, the operation was successfully implemented at Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and Yoshiki is in stable condition, save for having lost his voice after the surgery. The surgical incision will be 90% healed in six months, but it isn’t known how long it will take for Yoshiki to see improvement in the nerve pain caused by his condition.
Directly after the surgery, amidst waking up from general anesthesia, Yoshiki expressed to his doctors that he wanted to record a song he had been writing the night before surgery. Ordinarily, inpatient surgery patients are required to stay in the hospital for a day or more, but the doctors allowed him to be released for several hours. He went to a studio and attempted to record the song for 30 minutes, but was unable to due to his surgery. His staff and nurse were able to get him back to the hospital after the recording attempt.
In response to the surgery, the July portion of the We are X world tour may be postponed, as well as the Yoshiki Premium Dinner Show dates in August and September. X Japan management stated that decisions regarding the postponements will be made according to his recovery, and announced at a later time.
We are X is a documentary film about the band that was released in 2016, and the accompanying soundtrack was released in March. The accompanying tour is set to start July 11 in Osaka, Japan and continue throughout the 17th in both Osaka and Yokahama-Shi.
Read our review of the soundtrack album We Are X. Last year, we also had the opportunity to interview Yoshiki about We are X and their forthcoming album. For more information on Yoshiki’s condition and recent medical history, read our announcement on his emergency surgery.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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