Friend of the site and all round incredible artist Jesse Malin has opened up about his recent health isseues and why he cancelled his UK and Europe tour and he needs our help.
Just a few weeks after his triumphant Webster Hall gig, a 20th anniversary celebration of his solo debut ‘The Fine Art of Self Destruction’, Malin suffered a rare spinal-cord stroke — a stroke in his back — while at dinner in the East Village. Gathered with friends to mark the anniversary of the death of Howie Pyro, Malin’s former D Generation bandmate and best friend, he felt a burning pain in his lumbar region that slowly moved down his hips, through his thighs, and into his heels. He collapsed onto the floor of the restaurant, unable to walk.
“Everybody was standing above me like in Rosemary’s Baby, saying all these different things and I was there not knowing what was going on with my body,” Malin says during a phone call from his room at an NYU rehab facility.
Immobilized and numb, Malin was carried by Murphy’s Law singer Jimmy G from the Italian restaurant into the hallway of a nearby apartment, where an ambulance was called to take him uptown to Mount Sinai Hospital. That was May 4, and the notoriously physical, high-energy performer — his first public stage dive was at 14 on national TV during a Saturday Night Live performance by Fear — has been paralyzed from the waist down since.
Jesse told Rolling Stone that it was the hardest six weeks of his life, “I’m told that they don’t really understand it, and they’re not sure of the chances. The reports from the doctors have been tough and there’s moments in the day where you want to cry, and where you’re scared. But I keep saying to myself that I can make this happen. I can recover my body.”
Malin’s manager David Bason and some of his friends have launched the Jesse Malin Fund on Sweet Relief to raise money for his care and expenses, which include daily physical therapy, outpatient rehab once he’s discharged from an NYU rehab center later this month, and relocating from his current walk-up apartment to one with an elevator to accommodate his wheelchair.
Anyone who knows Jesse will tell you he is always the one who gives, the one always there for those in need, as evidenced by his work with various charity efforts. Among them: Sweet Relief, MusiCares, Light of Day Foundation, Joe Strummer Foundation, Save Our Stages, Joey Ramone Foundation for Lymphoma Research, Joey’s Song, Black Lives Matter, Howl Helps, Positive Panther Benefit (Natalie Beaverstock/fan for a wheelchair), Rock The Night Foundation, Rock Against Racism, Jail Guitar Doors, The Bowery Mission, Road 2 Recovery Foundation, Little Kids Rock Foundation, and food banks around New York City.
Recent Comments