Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot Jr. has cancelled his remaining U.S. tour dates for March because he is reportedly recovering from being hospitalized last week with a foodborne illness. His doctors expect the 77-year-old Lightfoot to fully recover, and the tour dates are being re-booked, mostly for late May.
It was almost 40 years ago that the man often referred to as Canada’s greatest songwriter released the chilling “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The song, which quickly topped the charts, came out only a few days after the bulk carrier with 29 crewman sank to the bottom of Lake Superior after a storm in November 1975. Since 2002, Lightfoot has had his share of medical issues, the most serious of which was life-saving surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. It involved a six week coma, tracheotomy, and followup surgeries. In 2006, he suffered a minor stroke on stage that temporarily left him without the use of his middle and ring fingers on his right hand. An internationally recognized folk and rock artist, Lightfoot has recorded more than 200 songs in five decades of performing. He is scheduled to return to his U.S. concert tour on May 23 in Erie, PA, followed by dates in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois.
