Former IRON MAIDEN vocalist Paul Di’Anno recently spoke with the “Još Jedan” podcast about his current health, his time fronting MAIDEN, his life in general and much more.
When discussing his overall health, Di’Anno said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET) that he is doing “better” but noted that he still has “a lot of work to do — a lot of physio and stuff like that.”
Di’Anno, who is currently in Croatia receiving lymphatic drainage for an upcoming knee surgery, also had some less than flattering things to say about the U.K.’s free-at-the-point-of-use National Health Service (NHS), saying: “Fucking NHS sucks. I was a defender of them big time. But the nurses are awesome and all the workers. It’s the fucking bureaucracy bullshit — the management and the people who run the NHS are just total assholes. But the poor heroes — the nurses and the staff — they’re great, but their hands are tied. So they didn’t know what to do. They just dumped me.”
The 64 year old singer went on to discuss the health concerns that have kept him from performing live for close to seven years.
“I caught sepsis [when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body] in 2015, and it almost killed me,” he said. “And I spent eight months in a hospital in England. You’ve got a crucial 45 minutes to get as many antibiotics in you before you die, and they managed to do that, which was great. Then I spent eight months in a hospital, and then another three months in a care home. And while I was in there getting things done, on hospital visits, I caught MRSA [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, an infection caused by a type of staph bacteria that’s become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections] there twice, in the hospital. So that was it. So it kept delaying things and delaying things… And then they took this knee out put this cement thing in. And it was only supposed to be in there for a year. And the first time they put that in, it broke, so they cut me open again and put another in. And that one is still in here. And while it’s been in there this long, it’s going toxic. So, what the fuck are they doing over there at the NHS?”
Paul also said that his doctors in Zagreb, Croatia found evidence of surgical instruments that were apparently left in his body.
“When I arrived here [in Croatia] at the clinic and they were looking me over, they found a fucking staple in my leg which was in there from the operation from four years ago. What’s going on?” he said.
“There’s gonna be a lawsuit, by the way. [Laughs]”
Amidst Paul’s health issues, operations director Kastro Pergjoni of the Cart & Horses pub in Stratford, London, England launched a crowdfunding campaign for Di’Anno to offset his medical costs with more than £13,000 being raised. A second crowdfunding campaign was launched last summer and has managed to garner more than £13,000.
The Cart & Horses pub is where IRON MAIDEN played their first live gig ever, back in 1976.