KING DIAMOND's Ultimate Torture: A Herniated Disc

October 26, 2007

King Diamond has told MTV.com that he may be forced to cancel his band's U.S. tour — which is scheduled to launch March 23 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and run through May 8 in Houston — due to a herniated disc.

"I can't sit down, even on my couch, for more than a few minutes," he said. "About a month ago I tried, and after 15 minutes, it started feeling like my left leg was getting set on fire."

"It can take up to a year and a half for a severe herniated disc to heal properly, but it varies from person to person," he added. "So, we are crossing our fingers and praying that we won't have to cancel the U.S shows. Right now there's not much more we can do."

Diamond got a taste of what might happen if he hits the road too soon in September when director Bill Schacht from video company Aestheticom — which has also worked with AMON AMARTH — shot a video for "Give Me Your Soul", the first KING DIAMOND clip in 17 years. "They limited what I had to do, of course, so I only did one day of shooting for 90 minutes, but just standing there moving a little bit in the full outfit was very difficult," he said. "And afterwards, I got one of those sharp attacks of pain that I hadn't had in a month and a half. The only thing I can compare it to is a really super-bad toothache or earache. And afterwards, I was like, 'OK, I'm not ready [to tour] yet.' "

Regarding how he injured his back, the 51-year-old singer said, "I think the real damage happened mixing the record, because I did that three weeks straight for a minimum of 12 hours a day. One of the last nights, when I was going to bed, I felt these pains in the sciatic nerves on each side, and I thought, 'Oh what is this?' The next morning I woke up and I couldn't walk or stand. It was like being paralyzed. I can't begin to say how painful it was. They say that's the worst pain you can experience as a human being. Had I not lived on the ground floor in a house, I would have jumped out the window."

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