Alt-rock singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet, known for such hits as "Girlfriend" and "I've Been Waiting," suffered what his manager is calling a "debilitating" stroke earlier this month while on tour in Toronto, reports NBC News. "He cannot perform for the foreseeable future," the 60-year-old performer's manager, Russell Carter, said in a statement. Catherine Lyons, who reps Sweet for Carter's agency, adds, per Deadline: "He has been unexpectedly and tragically forced off the road and onto a long, uncertain path to recovery."
In a GoFundMe set up for Sweet to help pay for his treatment, Lyons notes that her client has now lost his touring income and doesn't have insurance, leaving him with an "enormous financial burden." "The doctors and hospital care in Toronto were instrumental in saving Matthew's life, but health care is not free for Americans in Canada," she writes, noting that Sweet must now be flown back to the US in an air ambulance to a rehab center, "where he will receive around-the-clock care and therapy for six weeks." That will be followed by "months of treatment and rehabilitation that we hope will lead to a full recovery."
Hints that something was amiss emerged earlier this month on Sweet's social media accounts, which announced he was canceling all upcoming shows through Nov. 16 "due to a medical illness and on [doctors'] advice." "Needless to say, the costs for all of this treatment will be overwhelming. We anticipate a total close to a quarter of a million dollars," notes the GoFundMe, which had raised more than $313,000 as of Thursday morning. Among the big names who've forked over donations to help Sweet: musician John Mayer, Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings, and movie director Judd Apatow. (More singers stories.)
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