Texas singer to quit gigs after back injury
TEXAS singer Sharleen Spiteri is to quit performing live as she recovers from a crippling back injury.
The Scot’s touring career is hanging by a thread after rupturing three discs in her neck, which she attributes to ‘25 years of running up and down the stage with a guitar on my shoulder’.
Doctors have ordered her to stop playing amid fears further damage will need surgery.
The Say What You Want singer, 50, announced she is to play a series of gigs before her hiatus by taking heavy painkillers – including a final Scottish show.
She said: ‘The doctors say they may have to inject steroids into my spine to keep me going until October. They told me if I don’t take as much time off as I need I will have to have back surgery.’
Glasgow-born Miss Spiteri described how she was in agony before a concert last month. She said: ‘I had been suffering from my right arm being numb and the physio told me he thought I had slipped a disc in my neck and that I needed to go for an MRI.
‘I said, “Ach, it’ll be fine. Strap me up and I’ll be back in six days”.’
She then had dinner with the band in Denmark the next evening but went to bed early because of her shoulder.
She said: ‘I woke up at 4.30am screaming from the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt.’
Incredibly, Miss Spiteri was present when Texas played Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival last Friday. The band kicked off their set with I Don’t Want A Lover.
She has also vowed to play Linlithgow’s Party at the Palace next month.