It is a miracle that Phil Vassar is still alive.
At least that is what the 63-year-old country star said his doctors told him.
Vassar revealed as much in an interview with Forbes last year in which he revealed that he had a heart attack that was followed by a stroke in short order. But not only did Vassar live, he went back out on the road touring last year, and now he has new music.
Vassar is slated to release a new song, “What It Means,” on Friday, Jan. 23. The song is reportedly inspired by Vassar’s near-death experience.
“This one is extra special and I can’t wait for y’all to hear it!” Vassar wrote on Instagram.
Vassar told Forbes he doesn’t drink or smoke, and worked out, but he was feeling tired before his health issues began.
“I mean how can you have three-percent body fat and still not feel well?” he said.
Vassar said an assistant suggested that maybe he was working out too hard, but instead of getting checked, he tried to work through it.
“And then it happened,” he told Forbes. “I was at my girlfriend’s house and went into sudden cardiac arrest. She started beating on my chest and called 9-1-1, asking them what to do. The paramedics got there within 10-to-15 minutes, but it took them a long time to get my heart beating. They put me in the ambulance, and I coded again on the way to Vanderbilt.”
Three days later, he told Forbes, he suffered the stroke.
“I don’t remember anything about the heart attack,” he said. “The first memory I have is in Atlanta in rehab. It was like, what happened? I spent the next five months doing rehab, trying to remember stuff and learning how to walk. But luckily, it all came back relatively quickly.”
Vassar told Forbes his doctor blamed genetics for the heart attack and said his physical strength helped him survive.
“My doctors said it was a miracle and doctors don’t say that,” he told Forbes. “He said I’m alive because I was in good shape.”