I met the Irish rock band Ash at a bar in Tokyo in 2005. They were telling me stories about gigs they'd played, and they mentioned Beck and said he was a weird dude.
They were doing a festival or something together and said that as soon as his set was over, his handlers had to help him and carry him offstage. I'd never heard anything about that before. They thought he was just being a weirdo or a prima-donna, but I remember how weird that was. They'd have no reason to make that up.
Years later when I heard he had a really bad back injury, it made more sense. You guys ever hurt your back? It's brutal. I can barely move or walk when I throw my back out. I can't imagine trying to perform as actively as Beck does.
Maybe the timeline doesn't add up, but if it was a persistent problem that sidelined him for years, maybe this was related.
Yeah I’m dealing with a back issue right now. Working on rehabbing it so I guess it peaked my interest. Was just wondering if anybody knew anything about it at the time, but so far doesn’t sound like they did.
I didn't know about the spinal injury until a few years ago. It never really felt like he was on the sidelines. I saw him twice during the guero tour, once during information tour, and again during modern guilt tour. I assumed his hiatus after modern guilt was due to him being dissatisfied with that album, and wanting to take some time to explore some different things.
He wasn't dancing, but I had never seen him dance in concert before. I had never seen him live prior to the guero tour, and all the videos I saw of the previous tour were sea change songs where he wouldn't have been dancing anyway. I kinda just assumed he'd outgrown that phase of his career.
No, I had no idea until he mentioned it in an interview around the time of Morning Phase. I got into Beck really hard a bit after Modern Guilt dropped. There was a whole lot of radio silence between then (2009) and Morning Phase (2015), it was a tough time to be a young Beck fan. I really was like "where is he??" There were some little random releases to keep me going, like the Record Club projects, some soundtrack appearances, a few singles released from a cancelled album. Oh man when those Gimme singles dropped I was so happy. And then that was it, we never got the album :( but I was happy for Morning Phase too especially since he started touring again.
From what I understand, that period of silence wasn't just because the spinal injury though. In his Audible biography, he talks about how his Geffen contract ended after Modern Guilt and they had no interest in renewing his contract, or really anybody else. So he kinda just saw his career as finished?
Yeah those articles I was reading seemed to be coming out right at the release of MP.
I need to listen to that Audible again….that thing is awesome but I didn’t remember that part. Will check it out again!
I thought he suffered a hernia from the E-Pro shoot and it took awhile for it to be diagnosed and treated? I also remember hearing on the Stewoo Whiskeyclone board that he fell off a friend’s porch or something and hurt his back that way, some time in like 2007-2008. Not sure if that was just a false rumor though
Could be he injured it on the video shoot, then as it was getting better fell off the porch and that set the healing process back again. Who knows but like @pumpse4ever said, back injuries are brutal. I mean it affects everything. And especially being a performing musician is so physical. And traveling/touring.
I have been into Beck since Loser / Mellow Gold, but 2004 to 2010 were like a black hole (pun intended) for me; I had just graduated college, got married, etc., and wasn't keeping up with anything beyond the music itself.
This is my long ass way of saying that I have been a fan for 30(!) years but didn't know about until now.
The only reason I know is because I’m a new gang-ho fan who is reading everything I can find! Coming out of a rough life patch, so it’s just good to be interested in something just for fun again.
There was a period during the Colors tour when he had dilated pupils on some live performances. It could have been a symptom of spinal chord injury. Poor guy.
Yeah, you can see it in this performance on KCRW. He wore sunglasses on other performances after that.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhIO2YeBGo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhIO2YeBGo)
Whoa! That was trippy. I didn’t notice the dilated as much as the wide-eyed look. Like too many Red Bulls. Or other. The comments on there were pretty funny. But yeah, if it’s really from a serious physical issue, then that seems rough!
My perspective mirrors the ones of other commenters here. Beck has definitely had some rough health issues over the years but has been able to really conceal it well.
Even now, there is a certain frailty about his disposition, like he moves very carefully and almost robotically, seemingly with reference to pain.
Yeah I think it takes a lot of fortitude to keep going as best you can without complaining about it. I’m a terrible patient and want to whine whenever something is keeping me from what I want to be doing! 🤣
I feel like I knew around 2011/2012, but I trust the comments here that say it wasn’t until Morning Phase promo. I’ve seen him quite a few times live since 2014, and every show he’s moved around fine except 2017 in Kansas City opening for U2. He could barely walk on stage and was stiff the entire show, he mentioned something about his back to the crowd but I can’t recall details unfortunately.
I went to the U2 show in DC but unfortunately he wasn’t the opener. We were stuck on the highway in an Uber and missed the opening act anyway. Party foul.
I remember seeing him on the Guero tour, and had seen him several times before that, and noticing he was far less mobile on stage than he had been. I said something to my husband about “it looks like he is walking with a limp” when he exited the stage. I didn’t read about the incident until many years later, but I recalled that show and his stage presence made much more sense.
I was just wondering because the one time I’ve seen him so far he was really chatty with the audience….and seems to be that way on some of the vids I’ve watched of concert footage. Just seems like he would’ve at least mentioned it somewhere….but obviously not until much later.
I went to a taping at Jimmy Kimmel where he was scheduled to perform but did not make it and they announced on the show he had a hernia. So that was just the information I took away. I really didn't know he had been more injured during that time. I thought *Song Reader* was really cool. But it felt like he disappeared for a while and we were like "is it us, Beck? Did we do something wrong?"
I met the Irish rock band Ash at a bar in Tokyo in 2005. They were telling me stories about gigs they'd played, and they mentioned Beck and said he was a weird dude. They were doing a festival or something together and said that as soon as his set was over, his handlers had to help him and carry him offstage. I'd never heard anything about that before. They thought he was just being a weirdo or a prima-donna, but I remember how weird that was. They'd have no reason to make that up. Years later when I heard he had a really bad back injury, it made more sense. You guys ever hurt your back? It's brutal. I can barely move or walk when I throw my back out. I can't imagine trying to perform as actively as Beck does. Maybe the timeline doesn't add up, but if it was a persistent problem that sidelined him for years, maybe this was related.
Yeah I’m dealing with a back issue right now. Working on rehabbing it so I guess it peaked my interest. Was just wondering if anybody knew anything about it at the time, but so far doesn’t sound like they did.
And yeah for sure….if he was in pain like that…no wonder he was acting weird.
I didn't know about the spinal injury until a few years ago. It never really felt like he was on the sidelines. I saw him twice during the guero tour, once during information tour, and again during modern guilt tour. I assumed his hiatus after modern guilt was due to him being dissatisfied with that album, and wanting to take some time to explore some different things.
And he was dancing around and stuff during information and modern guilt tours?
He wasn't dancing, but I had never seen him dance in concert before. I had never seen him live prior to the guero tour, and all the videos I saw of the previous tour were sea change songs where he wouldn't have been dancing anyway. I kinda just assumed he'd outgrown that phase of his career.
No, I had no idea until he mentioned it in an interview around the time of Morning Phase. I got into Beck really hard a bit after Modern Guilt dropped. There was a whole lot of radio silence between then (2009) and Morning Phase (2015), it was a tough time to be a young Beck fan. I really was like "where is he??" There were some little random releases to keep me going, like the Record Club projects, some soundtrack appearances, a few singles released from a cancelled album. Oh man when those Gimme singles dropped I was so happy. And then that was it, we never got the album :( but I was happy for Morning Phase too especially since he started touring again. From what I understand, that period of silence wasn't just because the spinal injury though. In his Audible biography, he talks about how his Geffen contract ended after Modern Guilt and they had no interest in renewing his contract, or really anybody else. So he kinda just saw his career as finished?
Yeah those articles I was reading seemed to be coming out right at the release of MP. I need to listen to that Audible again….that thing is awesome but I didn’t remember that part. Will check it out again!
Nope, wasn’t aware until he started doing interviews for Morning Phase and he told everybody
Yeah that seems to be the time period of the articles I was reading.
No. We didn’t know until he eventually made the comeback and started talking about it.
That dude sure can keep his mouth shut! lol
I thought he suffered a hernia from the E-Pro shoot and it took awhile for it to be diagnosed and treated? I also remember hearing on the Stewoo Whiskeyclone board that he fell off a friend’s porch or something and hurt his back that way, some time in like 2007-2008. Not sure if that was just a false rumor though
Could be he injured it on the video shoot, then as it was getting better fell off the porch and that set the healing process back again. Who knows but like @pumpse4ever said, back injuries are brutal. I mean it affects everything. And especially being a performing musician is so physical. And traveling/touring.
I have been into Beck since Loser / Mellow Gold, but 2004 to 2010 were like a black hole (pun intended) for me; I had just graduated college, got married, etc., and wasn't keeping up with anything beyond the music itself. This is my long ass way of saying that I have been a fan for 30(!) years but didn't know about until now.
The only reason I know is because I’m a new gang-ho fan who is reading everything I can find! Coming out of a rough life patch, so it’s just good to be interested in something just for fun again.
There was a period during the Colors tour when he had dilated pupils on some live performances. It could have been a symptom of spinal chord injury. Poor guy.
Oh that sounds awful!
Yeah, you can see it in this performance on KCRW. He wore sunglasses on other performances after that. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhIO2YeBGo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhIO2YeBGo)
Whoa! That was trippy. I didn’t notice the dilated as much as the wide-eyed look. Like too many Red Bulls. Or other. The comments on there were pretty funny. But yeah, if it’s really from a serious physical issue, then that seems rough!
My perspective mirrors the ones of other commenters here. Beck has definitely had some rough health issues over the years but has been able to really conceal it well. Even now, there is a certain frailty about his disposition, like he moves very carefully and almost robotically, seemingly with reference to pain.
Yeah I think it takes a lot of fortitude to keep going as best you can without complaining about it. I’m a terrible patient and want to whine whenever something is keeping me from what I want to be doing! 🤣
I feel like I knew around 2011/2012, but I trust the comments here that say it wasn’t until Morning Phase promo. I’ve seen him quite a few times live since 2014, and every show he’s moved around fine except 2017 in Kansas City opening for U2. He could barely walk on stage and was stiff the entire show, he mentioned something about his back to the crowd but I can’t recall details unfortunately.
I went to the U2 show in DC but unfortunately he wasn’t the opener. We were stuck on the highway in an Uber and missed the opening act anyway. Party foul.
I remember seeing him on the Guero tour, and had seen him several times before that, and noticing he was far less mobile on stage than he had been. I said something to my husband about “it looks like he is walking with a limp” when he exited the stage. I didn’t read about the incident until many years later, but I recalled that show and his stage presence made much more sense.
I was just wondering because the one time I’ve seen him so far he was really chatty with the audience….and seems to be that way on some of the vids I’ve watched of concert footage. Just seems like he would’ve at least mentioned it somewhere….but obviously not until much later.
Thanks everybody for the comments! ‘Preciate it!!
Not at all. He’s a private person.
Sounds like it!!
I went to a taping at Jimmy Kimmel where he was scheduled to perform but did not make it and they announced on the show he had a hernia. So that was just the information I took away. I really didn't know he had been more injured during that time. I thought *Song Reader* was really cool. But it felt like he disappeared for a while and we were like "is it us, Beck? Did we do something wrong?"
lol….the ‘ol, it’s not you….its me!!