Not Good News

[Wolfdog]

According to Jim Walsh (courtesy of our Queen) looks like PW is gonna be laid up with an injury for quite awhile.

Here's to hoping he heals fast and gets back to playing soon. I know a thing or two about serious hand injuries....but thankfully I stopped just short of putting a hole clean through.

I'm seriously wincing in empathic pain.

Get better soon.

[timsch]

Can we send something to him? Get well soon card or something?

[randolph500]

I'm seriously hoping this is wrong.
Any news Kathy?

[scoOter]

wow. wow. ow! that sucks so much. i hope he makes a speedy recovery. when i was in jr. high, i accidently stigmata-ed myself with a broken car antenna. i have a scar on my left hand to prove it. actually, it's more of an indentation...

anyway, paul, if you read this... please get better soon. the world needs you now more than ever.

[Kathy]

randolph500 said:

I'm seriously hoping this is wrong.
Any news Kathy?

Jim Walsh is good friends with Paul, so I'm certain it's right. Unfortunately. How horrible.

[Lulu]

Doesn't he know you're suppposed to soak the candle in a little hot water to get the wax out! GEEZ! That is so sad.

[kgp]

wolfdog said:

According to Jim Walsh (courtesy of our Queen) looks like PW is gonna be laid up with an injury for quite awhile.

Here's to hoping he heals fast and gets back to playing soon. I know a thing or two about serious hand injuries....but thankfully I stopped just short of putting a hole clean through.

I'm seriously wincing in empathic pain.

Get better soon.

God, that's awful.

[FreeRider]

Awww, jeez, that's horrible! Damn, Paul---I hope there's no permanent nerve damage. Get better soon, bro'!

[scoOter]

didn't pete townshend impale his right right on a wammy bar in the 80s? while doing a "windmill"?

[SnowCover]

That really sucks. I don't know what else to say, its just a serious bummer.

[FreeRider]

I know he's cut his hand doing those windmill moves but I hadn't heard about him puncturing his hand on the whammy bar. Could be true, the way he whipped his arm around and all.

Now Tom Petty messed up his hand some years ago, trying to put his fist thru a wall. I dunno if he had nerve damage, probably more like he broke bones in his hand.

[grickle]

That really sucks... best wishes to him. I hope he can play alright when it heals.

[MacGyver]

F*ck... This is devastating news. Hope your hand heals fast, Paul.

[MikeR]

That is a really dreadful development.

What usually bites you is either something you hardly ever do or something you do so often that you don't pay close attention. Even if there is some residual nerve damage I'm guessing Paul will find a way to work around it, but it sucks that he has to go through this regardless...

[MacGyver]

Is it his right or left hand?

[kgp]

macgyver said:

Is it his right or left hand?

According to the Jim Walsh story, his left. I'm not a guitar player, but I guess that doesn't makes it any less serious.

[Wolfdog]

scooterboy said:

didn't pete townshend impale his right right on a wammy bar in the 80s? while doing a "windmill"?

Yeah. During the 89 Who tour Pete did a 'windmill' and put it through his right hand. He was able to have it bandaged in a way that allowed him to hold a pick and he was back on stage the next night. (although more subduded).

This is from a bio on Pete:

“…suddenly I just felt my arm stop, I thought I’d just banged my hand but I looked, and it was actually still in there... sort of hanging. I thought, ‘Shit! That’s gone in quite a way,’ then I realized it had gone right through the hand! Well, I picked up the guitar and held it from the tremolo so that everybody could see what had happened, then I pulled it out and blood started to pump out. And then it fucking hurt. I ran off stage and ended up having oxygen, so I don’t remember much after that.”


The left hand is a much more serious injury for a guitar player.

[Tarzan]

Probably would have been better if were his right hand since the left is the one that needs more strength and dexterity (in most right-hand guitar cases) as it grips the neck and fingers chords. Jesus, that really sucks.

On a bright side (well, there's not really much of one) maybe a record of slide guitar and piano stylings before the year's over? Seriously, I know he wants to scream (and no doubt has). He'll be back, even if he has to teach himself to play left-handed, which I doubt he will. Doctor's sometimes overplay a diagnosis of lack of full recovery and dexterity (I know from experience) on injuries to keep hopes from being too high.

Best to ya, PW, hang in there.

[Tarzan]

I probably should have added and emphasized that doctors sometimes overplay timetables for recovery as well, for the same reason. Obviously though permanent damage is always a fear lurking in the back of thoughts with a severe injury, no one has implied that PW will never be able to play again. Apologies for jumping to gloomy, doomy speculations.

[nowwesayitoutloud]

For those who don't have an Internet connection, here's what Walsh wrote:

Speaking of prayers, at the end of Paul Westerberg's liner notes on "The Shit Hits The Fans," he wrote "Pray for us, Paul." Well, brother Paul could use some prayers at the moment, because a week or so ago he put a screwdriver through his left hand trying to get some wax out of a candle and cut some nerves and ripped some cartilage and hurt himself pretty bad.

Trying to get wax out of a candle?
Isn't that like trying to free a slave of ignorance or trying to teach a whore about romance?