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At Camp Flog Gnaw, Donald Glover explained why he didn’t finish hist tour last year: he suffered a stroke. Calling it his “Where Have I Been Monologue,” Glover explained that he first started experiencing symptoms before his New Orleans show in September 2024. “I had a really bad pain in my head in Louisiana, and I did the show anyway,” he said. “I couldn’t really see well. So when we went to Houston, I went to the hospital. And the doctor was like, ‘You had a stroke.’” Glover joked that his first thought upon hearing that was “Oh, here I am still copying Jamie Foxx.”
Last year, Glover announced a final tour as Childish Gambino. He canceled half of the dates mid-tour, citing “an ailment that had become apparent” on tour. “My path to recovery is something I need to confront seriously,” Glover wrote at the time. We now know that ailment was a stroke, the treatment for which revealed a hole in Glover’s heart as the underlying condition. “So I had this surgery, and then I had to have another surgery,” he said at Camp Flog Gnaw.
Glover said the health scare made him realize how lucky he is and how precious life is. “They say everybody has two lives, and the second life starts when you realize you have one,” he said. “And I gotta be honest: the life I’ve with you guys has been such a blessing.” Although it also sort of seems he’s open to reincarnation. “As my wife says — which I love — she’s like ‘If this life is a flavor? Soon as I’m done, give me another scoop.’”
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