The former Dead Kennedys frontman hopped out of bed to use the bathroom when his left leg collapsed under him, causing him to fall over, according to a social media post from Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, the singer’s other band that was formed in the late 2000s.
“I couldn’t even break the fall with my left arm because it wasn’t working either,” Biafra said in the post. “I tried to hop back up again, and I couldn’t. I realized I had ‘fallen and I can’t get up!'”
That’s when he realized he was having a stroke, Biafra said.
Biafra suffered a hemorrhagic stroke caused by high blood pressure, according to his band’s post. He remains hospitalized in stable condition.
“I still have a lot of great stuff in me,” Biafra said. “…but right now I gotta lotta of rehabbing to do.”
Biafra was the original singer for the Dead Kennedys— one, if not the, most influential punk band of all time.
He was the first person to respond to an ad from guitarist East Bay Ray and in 1979, the Dead Kennedys were born. The band would later break up in the mid 1980s before reuniting without Biafra more than two decades later.
Biafra also owns Alternative Tentacles, an independent record label based in San Francisco.