[kevinh]

Complications from Diabetes, :

 

“Leslie West is expected to fully recover, and faces extensive rehabilitation,” Karas said. “The family has requested that the public and media respect his privacy while he comes to terms with this life-changing transition.”
West was in Biloxi on Friday to perform with his band Mountain at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The show was canceled that afternoon.


Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/06/20/3213538/update-guitarist-leslie-west-remains.html#ixzz1PyDkCJ6J


Sad to hear, in another article his wife said the operation saved his life.

Hope he has a speedy recovery.

[MttBsh]

Leslie was one of my guitar heroes 40 yrs ago. The live side of Flowers of Evil says it all.
Getting older is no fun, but I know he'll keep performing because he was born to play guitar. All the best to him.

[Phil A]

Hope he does well.  Yes, getting old takes its toll. He came to a local small club about a year ago but I missed it as I had to go out of town that week.  I remember looking at more recent pictures and he seemed to be doing much better weight wise vs. the old days.  I bought Woodstock on Blu-Ray when it came out and it's amazing how many great people they had there.

[djbnh]

Diabetes 2 - the disease that will progressively maim you unless you aggressively manage it with strict diet / weight / exercise medication regimen. Seen this happen to my ex father-in-law and an uncle, the surgeons just kept taking more and  more of them. I've also seen others that, when diagnosed, immediately made major lifestyle changes and today are medication free.

[Thump553]

Best Leslie West story I ever heard was told by Arlo Gurthie.  In 1967  or so he was on a tour of Canada sponsored by Bill Graham, where Graham packed a train with artists like Mountain, Janis, etc. At one stop they all decided to go swimming-nude.  The pool allowed nude swimming but they didn't want all those long haired hippies so they said everyone had to wear bathing caps.

Arlo said the scariest sight he saw in his life was a naked 380 lb Leslie West coming out of the locker room wearing two bathing caps-one on his head and the other upside down on his beard.