Odds & Ends: Lil Wayne, Billy Joel, New Found Glory

On Thursday Lil Wayne gave his first interview since being hospitalized a few weeks ago for seizures. During his hospital stay TMZ reported that the rapper’s condition was at one point “unstable” and he had been placed in an induced coma.

Although his buddies and Young Money team denied he was fighting for his life, Lil Wayne now says that wasn’t far from the truth.

“I’ve had a bunch of seizures, y’all just never hear about them,” Weezy told Los Angeles-based radio station Power 106, explaining that he’s an epileptic. “But this time it got real bad ‘cause I had three of them in a row and on the third one, my heart rate went down to like 30 percent. Basically, I could’ve died, so that is why it was so serious.”

He blamed the seizures on stress and overworking himself.

As the rapper pointed out, he’s had multiple seizures before the most recent incident. In October a private jet reportedly was forced to make an emergency landing because Weezy was suffering “seizure-like symptoms.”

This isn’t the first time Billy Joel has made headlines for his alleged retirement plans.  

Australian news site News.com.au has the latest story, running with the headline “Billy Joel considering retiring from touring after performing at Sydney’s Stone Music festival.”

So, I guess it all comes down to this April 21 appearance.   

“I want to see if it’s time for me to get off the stage,” Joel told News.com.au. “There’s a time when an athlete says I can’t swing the bat anymore. So I get to feel it out … this will be a big test for me.”

The Piano Man added that watching “oldies” perform on TV, without being able to play like the good ol’ days makes him cringe.

“I don’t want to be that guy, I don’t want to be Spinal Tap.”

In February an interview with Rolling Stone about Joel’s hip replacement got some websites to call it the end for the pianist/singer/songwriter/composer. Headlines included “Is Billy Joel Hanging It Up For Good?” and “Billy Joel Has Retired From Touring.”

Before Joel retires he has to take the stage at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival April 27.

New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert had quite the shocking night when playing the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday.

After reports about the electric shock incident surfaced online from fans who had been at the show, Gilbert posted updated the band’s Facebook page Thursday to explain what happened.

“In between songs I grabbed the mic to speak and when I did it felt like I couldn’t let go,” he wrote. “I was being shocked and it froze me in place and when I was able to release my hands off of the mic I collapsed. When I came to I had friends standing over me and it felt like I was asleep in one of those Sci Fi movies when they wake up after traveling for 3 years to fight an alien.”

An ambulance was called and the guitarist was taken to the nearest emergency room for tests, including checking his heart to sure the electrical current hadn’t affected his ticker.

The guitarist, who said the test results came back just fine, was released from the hospital in time for Thursday’s show at the venue. He said he planned to use a wireless mic “to settle my paranoia of this happening again because man it hurt and sucked.”