Tame Impala main man Kevin Parker is recovering from major surgery to correct a fractured hip.
The Australian production whizz posted several pictures of himself in hospital, an MRI of the injury, and an x-ray of his femur, or thigh bone, complete with a collection of freshly-inserted screws and rods.
“Fractured my hip,” he writes in a post on Instagram. “Tried to run a half marathon on what turned out to be an existing stress fracture. Whoops. Made it to within 1km of the finish line. That’s life I guess.”
A hip fracture occurs when a break appears in the upper part of the femur, the longest, strongest bone in the human body.
According to the U.K.’s NHS, a broken hip is a serious injury, which typically requires immediate surgery and has a recovery time of several weeks or months. “But it can take longer,” reads a backgrounder on the NHS page. Depending on the age of the patient, and the severity of the injury, you’ll usually spend around 1 to 4 weeks in hospital.
Parker is keen to get back on his feet, and back out onto the road, as soon as possible. “All shows in Mexico and South America going ahead as planned I’m not quitting on you guys,” he writes in the post, uploaded Thursday (March 9).
Those dates include six concerts in March, with a concert Friday (March 10) in Mexico City and three Lollapalooza shows in separate countries.
Parker and his psychedelic rock outfit is supporting its award-winning fourth album The Slow Rush, which dropped in February 2020, just weeks before the WHO declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic, resulting in a years-long pause for touring. The Slow Rush led the Australian chart, and peaked at No. 3 in the U.S. and U.K.; the set went on to win five ARIA Awards, including album of the year.
Tame Impala on Friday (March 10) released “Wings of Time,” a rollicking psych-rock number lifted from the soundtrack to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and Parker collaborated with Gorillaz on “New Gold,” which appears on Cracker Island, the current No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
Stream “Wings of Time” below.