PRETTY MAIDS Guitarist KEN HAMMER Opens Up About 2024 Health Scare: 'I Had A Blood Clot In My Brain'

In a new interview with Metal Covenant, guitarist Ken Hammer of Danish hard rock veterans PRETTY MAIDS spoke about his 2024 health scare. He said: "Yeah, [it happened in the] summer [of 2024]. Just before we were going back together again, I had a blood clot in my brain. So I couldn't speak, and I couldn't write or anything. Thank God I had some medicine, and it solved it. But I still have it. If I get too excited, I can't speak properly. My brain and my mouth are not working together when I get too excited, you know. I lost my mom, and I lost my brother, and recently, like 10 days ago, I lost my dad. But it's all life, you know. You just have to come to terms with it."

Asked if he and his PRETTY MAIDS bandmates still drink alcohol and smoke, the 62-year-old musician said: "I smoke this [shows his electronic cigarette)]. I haven't touched a cigarette in 12 years. And I don't drink that much. I just like for people to think I am. I live in Sweden now, in Karlshamn, and when I'm home and alone, I don't drink at all. I mean, two weeks can pass before I have a beer. I like to go down to the pub and have a beer or two beers, and then go home, and that's it. But I don't drink that much. I actually never have, because I have kids, and I always have small kids, and I can't go walking around fucking drunk all the time. It doesn't work. I have five kids and two grandchildren. And my daughter is pregnant and she's gonna give birth any day now. But when I'm away I can get drunk one day, and then I need at least one day off, preferably two, before I get drunk again, and I go, 'Never again.' And I've said that many times."

Asked if it is tempting for him to drink a little bit more on a tour bus when he and some of his bandmates are consuming alcohol, Ken said: No. I can drink one beer still, and they can do whatever they want. I'm not, like, 'I don't drink anymore.' No, I do, and I like it. But it's different. It's an age thing. You know, the body reacts."

Back in December 2003, Ken was reportedly diagnosed with a blood clot in his heart but made a full recovery.

PRETTY MAIDS singer Ronnie Atkins was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2019. The now-61-year-old Atkins underwent at least 33 radiation and four chemotherapy treatments in the fall of that year before being declared cancer-free. In October 2020, he announced that his cancer had returned.

In a 2013 interview with Myglobalmind, Atkins joked that the secret to keeping his voice in shape was "twenty cigarettes a day and little drink now and then."

Formed in early 1982 by Atkins and Hammer, PRETTY MAIDS' third album, 1987's "Future World", is still today regarded as a "classic."

During the ensuing years, PRETTY MAIDS continued to release albums usually followed by European and Japanese tours.

PRETTY MAIDS' latest album, "Undress Your Madness", came out in November 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.