Punk legend Jello Biafra has been hospitalized after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke due to high blood pressure.
The former frontman of Dead Kennedys, 67, recounted the moments after a blood vessel burst in his brain in a Saturday social media post shared by Alternative Tentacles, the record label that Biafra co-founded.
“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 said in the post shared on Monday. “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!’”
He continued, “It was this point I thought, ‘Oh s***, I’m having a stroke!’ I still have a lot of great stuff in me, but right now I gotta lotta of rehabbing to do.”
The singer is currently hospitalized but stable, according to his record label.
Well wishes for Biafra poured in on social media, with fans wishing him an easy recovery. One person wrote on Instagram, “get well soon Jello. worlds never needed ya more.”
Another commented, “So sorry to hear this. I hope Jello has a speedy recovery and is ready to get back out there and fight the good fight!”
Biafra, whose real name is Eric Boucher, has been a notable champion of punk music since the early eighties. He co-founded Dead Kennedys in San Francisco in 1978, along with band members East Bay Ray on lead guitar, Klaus Flouride on bass, and the drummer known mononymously as Ted.
The group’s debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, became a punk classic due in part to Biafra’s left-wing satire.
After the band broke up in 1986, Biafra played electropunk music in the brief musical project the Witch Trials and formed the band Lard with members of the band Ministry.
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When Dead Kennedys got back together in 2001, Biafra turned down the opportunity to rejoin the band due to legal drama stemming from the band suing him for not paying them royalties in 1998.
In the years after his time in the punk group, Biafra has pivoted to spoken word performances and political activism. His most recent album was Tea Party Revenge Porn with his band Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine in 2020.