Photo Credit: Jason Persse / CC by 2.0
Dr. Dre says doctors told his family to say their last goodbyes to him after his brain aneurysm.
Dr. Dre recently revealed on Dolvett Quince’s “Workout the Doubt” podcast that he was close to death after having a brain aneurysm last year. Though he “never felt” like he was in trouble, the legendary rapper/producer says that doctors told his family to “say their last goodbyes” to him.
“They weren’t allowing anybody to come up — meaning visitors or family or anything like that — because of COVID,” Dre says of his experience at Cedars-Sinai, a non-profit Los Angeles hospital. “But they allowed my family to come in. I found out later they called them up so they could say their last goodbyes because they thought I was out of here. I didn’t know it was that serious. Nobody told me; I had no idea. That was crazy.”
In January 2021, Dre told fans on social media that he was in the hospital recovering from a brain aneurysm.
He said he was doing great and receiving excellent care, and only later would find out that his situation was more severe than he realized. At the time, many hospitals around the country had restricted visitor access due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Dre didn’t know his family was being allowed to visit as an exception.
“I never felt like I was in trouble,” he explains. “I felt like, ‘Okay, I’m just going through a procedure and I’m ready to go home. I’m hungry.’ I didn’t eat for two weeks. That was a really crazy experience.”
Dr. Dre was admitted into the ICU for two weeks, during which doctors woke him every hour so they could run tests. He was released from the hospital in mid-January last year. Little more than a year later, he went on to perform at the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show alongside Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar.