Posted on 01/02/2011 12:24:57 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Rock 'n' roll great Chuck Berry was feeling fine and headed back to his hometown of St. Louis on Sunday, hours after falling ill during a New Year's performance in Chicago.
An assistant for Berry said in a telephone interview he was feeling fine on Sunday morning and was planning to return to his home outside St. Louis in the afternoon.
Hotel staff at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago, where Berry was staying, told Reuters they saw the performer on Sunday morning and that he looked good.
The 84-year-old entertainer slumped over his electric keyboard on Saturday night while playing for a crowd of about 3,000 at Chicago's Congress Theater, and was helped off the stage by two assistants as fans shouted "We love you, Chuck!"
Berry returned to the stage about 30 minutes later, waved to his fans, thanked them and said he was OK, according to concert-goer Jim O'Malley.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Go Johnny GO Go GO!!
yes, he’s amazing .. hope he keeps going strong
I’m glad he’s doing okay. To an old rock ‘n’ roller like myself, the man is a legend.
Prayers for Chuck. What passes for music today is just noise.
He’s just amazing...God bless him and GO JOHNNY GO GO!!!!
Hail Hail Chuck Berry!
Godspeed baby!
He was probably just having trouble with his ding-a-ling. :-)
Great man. Great entertainer. One of my first ‘dance to’ music.
Wishing him wellness for another 20 years at least.
Prayers for this legend.
Prayers for the father of rock and roll.
“Back to the Future” flashback ping.
Godspeed baby!
I saw Berry on new years eve 1988 in NYC. Keep on keepin’ on, Chuck!
Still alive — AND PERFORMING!
Rock ‘n Roll will never die, baby!
Let’s do some Time Math:
If “Back to the Future” was made today, the “back” date would be...1981!! The worst thing would be leisure suits and wide collars, not an entire culture.
If people listening to Chuck Berry listened to his music back then as we do his now now, they would have been listening to music from... 1905 (Johnny B Goode was recorded in 1958, 53 years ago)! That period skips Ragtime, Big Bands, Crooners, and the origins of Blues and Jazz!
We can’t say why, and we can’t say “Johnny B Goode” or “Gimme Shelter” or “Light My Fire” will last hundreds of years like the classics (”Ah, Bach!”) but I for one am (happily) surprised by the staying power of Rock.
Years ago in the mid 70’s and early 80’s I use to play in a band that would back up and play with most of the acts with “The Dick Clark Rock and Roll Show” all over the Midwest such as Chicago Fest, Summer Fest in Milwaukee, Memphis Fest etc...many times Chuck Berry would headline these shows and we would be his band. He would show up at least 30 minutes late...and as Chuck would say, “If I’m only 30 minutes late...I’m early.” I don’t think he ever tuned his guitar before playing and never ever told anyone on stage what key the song he was playing was in. We would all run over and stick an ear into his amp to figure out what key the song was in and then scream the key across this huge stage to each other. After the 3rd or 4th gig with him we knew what keys he played each of his songs.
We always played a matinee at 3:00 and an evening show at 8:00. This one show in Milwaukee at Summer Fest, Chuck Berry misses the entire Matinee Show and calls the promoter from Mitchell airport and asked him if he was going to get paid for both shows. The promoter asked “Why?” and Chuck said, “Because if I don’t I’m gonna hop on a plane back to St. Louis.” They paid him for both shows.
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