Jake Owen Gives Health Update After Unexpected Hospital Visit, Talks Aging in the Music Industry

Country singer Jake Owen has broken his silence since a weekend of shows in October ended with an unexpected trip to the hospital.

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The “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” performer gave a health update on a recent episode of Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen, opening up about aging in the music industry and the devoted fan base that keeps him going.

After a short break to recoup, Owen’s underlying illness has been chalked up to extreme exhaustion. “I haven’t slept well in a long time,” he told the radio host. “That’s what I’d come to find out after going to the hospital. That’s my only issue – I literally do not sleep.”

He continued to explain, “Part of not sleeping makes my voice tired. And when the voice is tired, then I’m like, ‘Well, how am I going to do this show?’ It just compounds.” His recent Up There Down Here Tour has been a constant grind. In the conversation, he explained his age hasn’t helped.

“I just have been struggling a lot lately with… Well, to be real with you, just part of, as an artist, feeling like, okay, I’m 40 now… 41 actually,” Owen said. “I keep telling myself I’m 40. I remember being on tour with Kenny Chesney when he turned 40, and I was like, ‘He’s 40?!’

“I never thought of myself as having a timeline,” he continued. “I never thought of myself as not the young guy in the format. But now I see all these young kids, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m not the young guy anymore.’ So I think a lot of that has made me just… My brain anyways is always going crazy. So I don’t sleep.”

When he fell ill, Owen explained in the interview, it was important for him to be upfront with his fan base and to be honest about the realities all artists face when touring. “I pretended to feel well all weekend,” the country singer alerted his devotees in a transparent post on social media. “And I ended up back in the [hospital emoji].”

He continued, “Just because there’s a smile on someone’s face, doesn’t mean they aren’t goin thru something. That’s what I think about when I see you in the crowd.. ‘What are they goin through? How can I lift them up?’ I can see through the smile sometimes.

“You guys lift me up,” he wrote. “Tbh, it was everything I could do to not pass out on stage last night. I got through it though because I know how lucky I am to do this for a living… I’m not dialing it in.

“I’m gonna be good y’all…,” he assured fans, stating that he knows he tends to push the limits. He closed the post with, “I’ll be back out here stronger than ever next time I hit the stage. You can damn sure count on that.”

Owen was back on stage on November 3, for his show in West Valley, Utah. He just recently wrapped up his tour and will say goodbye to 2022 with The Flamingo Jam in Vero Beach, Florida.

See his full post, below.

(Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

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