Eels’ Mark ‘E’ Everett speaks out after open-heart surgery: “I’m a lucky guy. I’m so glad I got to say hi again”

9 May, 2024

Eels frontman Mark 'E' Everett

Eels frontman Mark ‘E’ Everett has revealed that he recently had open-heart surgery and said he’s a “lucky guy” as a result of it.

Taking to X/Twitter, he posted a picture of himself after heart surgery along with the caption: “Hi again. I can explain here”. He then shared a link to the band’s website, which contains a lengthy post from the frontman.

He begins it by reflecting on the last year and how the difficulties of touring affected him after the pandemic.

Everett wrote: “After being cooped up in lockdown all those years and cancelling tours, we finally went out and played shows for the first time in nearly four years last spring and I almost lost my mind during the early part of it.”

“It was such a mind-fucking culture shock after being so isolated and in a completely different world all that time. But eventually I pulled it together and I think we ended up doing some of the best shows we’ve ever done. It was so great to see… people,” he added.

He then went on to detail how he went into hospital following the tour and how the death of his father, who died of a heart attack when Everett was just 19 as detailed in his 2007 autobiography Things The Grandchildren Should Know, helped him to monitor his own health.

Everett also lost his sister, who died by suicide in 1996, and his mother two years later to lung cancer. His cousin was a flight attendant who died on American Airlines Flight 77, the plane that struck the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks in 2001.

“The only good thing that came out of my father dying of a heart attack at age 51 was it taught me to stay on top of heart health,” the Eels frontman wrote.

“So I’ve had yearly scans to keep an eye on things, and it became apparent that, although I felt fine and had no symptoms, my aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body, had an aneurysm and if I didn’t replace it soon it was bound to explode and make me feel symptoms of… death. Probably sometime in the next few months. This isn’t related to what happened to my father, but it was because of him that I found out about this.

“So thank you to my father, Hugh Everett III, who gave me a parallel universe to presently reside in: one where I’m still alive.”

Detailing his procedure, He added: “I had open heart surgery. They cut through my pecs, sawed through my breastbone and stopped my heart on the table. They put in a new aorta. Either I made it, or I really am in a parallel universe now.

“Either way, all good. I was in the hospital for a week with really wonderful people helping me through it all. And I’m fine now, thanks to Dr.s Bowdish and Cohen making sure my heart started back up, and thanks to nurses Shannon, Trisha and Michelle in ICU and Doreen and all the other amazing nurses and doctors in DOU.”

In the same post, he also discussed plans to release a new album on June 7, entitled ‘Eels Time!’. You can pre-order/pre-save their 15th studio album here.

He also shared the first taster from the record ‘Time’, which you can listen to above.

Everett signed off by saying: “Thanks for reading this and I hope you like the new music. I’m a lucky guy. I’m so glad I got to say hi again.”

In other Eels news, at the end of last year the band released a festive Christmas song called ‘Christmas, Why You Gotta Do Me Like This’.

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