I had an accident at the Robert Longo opening in New York last September. It was during soundcheck and the performance space was dark. I tripped and fell backwards, ripping the tendons that attach the thigh to the knee. Ouch!
Fortunately, the gallery owner was also a medical doctor, and he called a specialist, who put me in a leg splint, which enabled me to do the performance. That was the good news. The bad news was that I needed an operation to re-attach the tendons to the knee, which because of the gallery owner’s good connections, was going to cost “only” USD $25,000 if I had done it in NY. Yikes!
So the next day I hopped on an Air France back to Paris, where we have universal health care, and had the operation done for free.
In spite of the accident we had a great time at the performance, here are some photos of the event:
Rhys Chatham
Rhys with Karen Haglof on el. guitar, Jonathan Kane on drums.
Ernie Brooks on el. bass, Robert Longo, Marc Glimcher & Jon Kessler – el. guitars
After the operation, I was in a leg splint for a couple of months and had to walk around on crutches. then I went into physical therapy and had re-education twice a week to train my tendons to walk normally. It’s February and I can walk almost normally now. Just a couple more weeks and i’ll be dancing the Watutsi again!
I did a concert at INA GRM at La Maison de Radio France last month that went well. I’ll post on it shortly. In the meantime, here is a link to an interview that was done with me on Radio France in connection with the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) concert:
click here to be taken to the interview