Heartbreaking news: Rod Evans announces a devastating news about Ian Paice just now…

DEEP PURPLE drummer Ian Paice suffered a minor stroke last year, forcing him to miss the band’s shows in Sweden and Denmark — the first time his medical condition prevented him from performing with the group.

Asked for an update on his health, Paice told Ultimate Classic Rock in a new interview: “I’m good. I had a little event last year in about June which frightened the shit out of me, but I got fixed up real good.

So long as I take these four tablets once a day for the rest of my life, there’s no reason why it should ever happen again. But it was pretty scary for me.

My right hand had nothing to do with the rest of my body, to the point that I couldn’t even sort of scratch [myself]. I just had a lump of flesh on my right side.

But it came back pretty quickly and the doctors told me that I’d been very lucky. It’s what is called a TIA rather than a full-blown stroke, and I recovered. Blood pressure is great, heart is great, so I’ve been a lucky guy.”

Last year, legendary Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice suffered a minor stroke, leaving the band with no other choice but to cancel their shows in Sweden and Denmark.

Paice gave an update on his health in an interview conducted by Ultimate Classic Rock: “I’m good. I had a little event last year in about June which frightened the shit out of me, but I got fixed up real good.

So long as I take these four tablets once a day for the rest of my life, there’s no reason why it should ever happen again. But it was pretty scary for me.

My right hand had nothing to do with the rest of my body, to the point that I couldn’t even sort of scratch [myself]. I just had a lump of flesh on my right side.

But it came back pretty quickly and the doctors told me that I’d been very lucky. It’s what is called a TIA rather than a full-blown stroke, and I recovered. Blood pressure is great, heart is great, so I’ve been a lucky guy.”

Paice said that it “broke [his] heart” to have to cancel PURPLE shows. “You think that nothing’s going to happen to you, that you’re bulletproof and immortal, and then suddenly nature shows you that you just ain’t,” he explained.