For all of the perks of being a career musician, there are plenty of worksite hazards to consider. Electric instruments, amplifiers, and a venue’s wiring don’t always mix. Constant travel statistically puts musicians at greater risk en route to their jobs. But for “Blue Suede Shoes” singer-songwriter Carl Perkins, the workplace accident that almost ended his career in a few, fleeting seconds came from a danger not many of us would suspect: a nearby fan.
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Perkins was performing on a trailer stage in a courthouse yard one balmy Tennessee day in 1962. A well-meaning event organizer put a fan next to the stage to help keep the musicians cool while they played. But with no guard on the metal fan, it was one misplaced arm or guitar neck away from becoming a blender or a wood chipper, respectively.
Unfortunately for Perkins, it was the former. While taking his guitar off to take a bow to the audience, Perkins unknowingly put his hand too close to the guardless fan. “Wiped the whole hand out,” he later told Musician magazine, per Guitar Player. “The fingers were just danglin’, hangin’ off.”
Carl Perkins Almost Lost His Life in This Freak Fan Accident
As Carl Perkins suggested to Musician, the hand injury he sustained from the rotating fan blades was swift and significant. With fingers dangling, Perkins wrapped his hand in a towel and immediately set off toward the nearest hospital, which was 60 miles away. Based on his description of his hand en route to the hospital, it’s likely that Perkins severed his radial artery—the vessel that supplies blood to the thumb and index finger and the one used to take one’s pulse at their wrist. This detail turned a painful accident into a near-fatal disaster.
With each beat of Perkins’ heart, more blood poured out of his hand. “Blood filled the floorboards and was running out the back doors,” he later said. Perkins said he began to fade out of consciousness as blue and purple swirls of color took over his vision. “I went through that passing from life. I was just floatin’ like a feather through those beautiful colors.
Once Perkins arrived at the hospital and a surgeon assessed his injuries, the doctor recommended he amputate the severed fingers. Perkins’ wife, however, insisted he try to save his hand, knowing the devastating consequences such a decision would have on her husband’s career. When Perkins woke up from surgery, he saw that his wife’s pleas had paid off. He still had his hand, albeit wrapped in a heavy cast.
“I was happy to have a thumb left,” Perkins remembered. “I tuned my guitar in open E, laid it across my lap, and picked with the end of my thumb with that big cast on.” Perkins eventually began playing again, although he lost his dexterity in his pinky. Still, four out of five fingers after a mishap like that ain’t too bad.
Photo by Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images
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