Vinnie Colaiuta has recently been interviewed by the Drummer Nation YouTube channel hosted by two outstanding American drummers, Michael Vosbein and Adam Nusbaum.
One of the topics covered in this 45-minute conversation is Vinnie’s health. The artist explains why he hasn’t played live for some time:
Photo source: paiste.com
“I’ve been inactive because I had a problem about a year and a half ago, and it’s been my bane for the past 18 months, shall we say. It’s basically a failed neck surgery. It’s really impacted my career a lot. I’ve been semi-retired for many reasons. One, it kinda started when COVID put a bit of a damper on a lot of stuff. After that, I started having these problems and I went to have this surgery and it was incomplete so I’ve been sort of suffering the consequences ever since, kind of wondering: ‘Not sure what the next step is.’ After the surgery, I couldn’t play for six months and that really did a number on my psyche. Now, I can record again but I’m not at gig level where I could confidently go out and say: ‘Yeah, I’ll go play for two hours’ because it could happen where all of a sudden my hand goes numb and I can’t say: ‘Excuse me, can we stop for five minutes?’ in the middle of a set. I can’t do that, but on a session, I can. Even if we have to stop a take, all is not lost. So I’m taking what I can get right now but that’s basically it. […] It’s a hard thing to deal with but it is what it is. Part of me has hoped that maybe I have some time left if I can rectify it in some way. Part of me is thinking: ‘Well, I had a good run.’”
We wish Vinnie a full and speedy recovery as well as many more years of performing around the world!
It is also worth noting that Vinnie Colaiuta is the host of his own podcast, called “Breakfast With Vinnie“.
Vinnie Colaiuta’s official website: https://www.vinniecolaiuta.com/
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Watch the entire interview HERE.