Country music artist Eric Church is speaking out for the first time about a near-death experience that left him and his family rattled, according to a wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone published Wednesday.
Church reportedly started feeling a "tingling" in his hands as his arena tour was winding down last year.
"I just associated it with nerves," Church told the magazine . "I didn’t think it was anything."
But after returning to his home in North Carolina in June, Church's condition began to worsen.
"I was watching the College World Series and texting about golf and this hand was not responding like it should," Church said. "So I peeled my shirt off and went in the bathroom, and my arm was noticeably red and enlarged."
With his wife, Katherine, in Nashville, Church drove himself to the hospital, only to be told he needed an ultrasound — another 25 minutes away, according to the report.
"By this time, it’s near 5 a.m.," Church said. "I was thinking about my family and kids, and how I wanted to make it back home."
Church was told had a blood clot in his chest and that he needed surgery immediately. "I said, 'Can it kill me?' And he said, 'Today.' And I said, 'I need to make a phone call,'" Church explained in the interview.
"They took me into the ICU and I thought, 'OK, I’m gonna go to bed, get up in the morning and do this thing,'" Church described in the interview. “But when I walk in the room, the surgical team is there and the (doctor’s) in scrubs. He says, 'We’re gonna go now.' That was really when it hit me. To them, I was going to die."
Church told Rolling Stone that his nerves aren’t quite healed but, so far, there’s been no long-term damage. "I can still play guitar," Church said. "And I play golf better than ever."
Reach Michael at maldrich@tennessean.com.
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