Dave Edmunds suffered a “major cardiac arrest” and faces a “very long journey” to recovery, according to his wife, who detailed the Welsh musician’s health struggles in a Facebook post.
Best known perhaps for his 1970 hit “I Hear You Knocking,” Edmunds — who also formed the band Rockpile with Nick Lowe — “died in my arms while I desperately tried to keep him alive,” Cici Edmunds wrote in the July 29 post, before doctors revived him “by a miracle.” Dave Edmunds, 81, “very clearly has brain damage and severe memory loss” after the ordeal, Cici Edmunds wrote, and he faces the high risk of another cardiac arrest.
“And if that occurs there is no chance for Dave,” Cici Edmunds added.
Dave Edmunds topped the U.K. pop singles chart for six weeks in 1970 with his rendition of “I Hear You Knocking,” which the R&B singer Smiley Lewis originally popularized in the mid-1950s. Among Edmunds’ other solo hits are “Girls Talk” (written by Elvis Costello), “Born to Be with You” and a cover of the Ronettes’ “Baby, I Love You.” He formed Rockpile in 1976 and later produced records by the Stray Cats and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, among other acts. He also toured as a member of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band.
In her Facebook post, Cici Edmunds thanked her husband’s fans “for your support and well wishes” and said they have made “this tremendously difficult journey a little easier.”
