Gorillaz‘ set at Denmark’s famous Roskilde Festival was cut short on Saturday evening after Del the Funky Homosapien took a fall off the stage during the set-closing performance of their smash hit 2001 collaboration, “Clint Eastwood”. As previously reported, the song was intended to be the last of their performance, but Del unexpectedly slipped just a couple lines into his first verse (“Finally, someone let me out of my cage; Now, time for me is nothing ’cause I’m counting no age”).
Del the Funky Homosapien falls offstage, Damon Albarn addresses the audience
[Video: thatguy]
At the time, it appeared that Del’s injuries weren’t too serious, with the rapper tweeting, “Thank you all for the love! I’m doing alright but will be in the hospital for a bit, the care here is outstanding though. Much love to @gorillaz for having me out and I’ll be back soon yall.”
Now, new info from Albarn, co-founder of the “animated group,” has shed some light on Del’s condition, and it sounds like he’s in rougher shape than he initially let on. In a new interview with Beats 1, Albarn assured fans that Del will be ok eventually, but noted that Del is still in the hospital following his stage fall, adding that he has “seven fractured ribs, and he punctured his lung on one side, lacerated it on the other.”
Albarn also spoke about his initial onstage reaction to the fall, when he was still unaware of the extent of Del’s injuries: “Listen, guys. There’s a strange bit here…You know, unfortunately, Del, like, slipped down there. It’s a really weird way to end a beautiful night, but he’s gonna be okay.” As he explains to Beats 1,
It was just a stage fall, and I’ve fallen off stage several times, off stages way higher than that and I’ve been so fortunate. When he fell down, I was looking at him like, come on get up there are 80,000 people out there and we need to finish. I thought he was going to be okay… But he really wasn’t.
You can listen to Albarn’s interview with Beats 1’s Matt Wilkinson below:
Damon Albarn – Beats 1 Interview [Audio]
This morning, Del took to Twitter from his hospital bed to thank fans for their support. Watch the video message from Del the Funky Homosapien below. While a timeline for his return to the stage has yet to be determined, he notes in the video that he may be released from the hospital today.
Thank you all for the love the past few days, we getting there🤘🏾 pic.twitter.com/B3iGdg7n3v
— Del The Funky Homosapien (@DelHIERO) July 12, 2018
Gorillaz are coming off the release of their newest album, The Now Now, which features a number of guest appearances including Snoop Dogg and Jaimie Principle on the single “Hollywood”. You can watch the video for Gorillaz’ Snoop-assisted “Hollywood” here. See below for a full list of Gorillaz’ upcoming tour dates.
[H/T Billboard]