A life-threatening medical emergency nearly ended the career of Drake White — but years later, he says the experience reshaped everything from his outlook on life to his faith.
According to Fox News, the 42-year-old artist is now back on tour, sharing stages with Riley Green, but the road back began with a terrifying moment in 2019 that unfolded mid-performance.
Before that day, White had been diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a rare brain condition. After undergoing four surgeries, he said doctors believed the chances of a rupture were less than 1%.
Still, the risk became reality while he was performing in Roanoke.
“We just took the stage in Roanoke, Virginia. It was probably 98 degrees and cotton candy skies, beautiful, 2,500 people out there. And I tore into three or four songs, and I just felt a tick,” White said. “And I felt my left arm, my fingers tingling, kind of numbness. And then I heard a, I call it a gunshot. It literally sounded like an audible gunshot behind my left ear. And when it snapped, if you look at the video back, you can see me trying to push through it.”
“I grew up in Alabama, where you just kind of keep pushing, keep going, and I tried to do that, and I couldn’t speak,” he continued. “I couldn’t think, and the cotton candy sky became the grass, and the grass became the sky. Everything flipped upside down… Everything slowed way down, and it just felt like I was walking in quicksand, and everything was heavy. My left arm was heavy, my left foot was heavy, and I knew right then, I was like, ‘Well, dang, I’m having a stroke.'”
He remembered doctors warning him about the possibility of a rupture.
“They told me, if it ruptures, that you would have a very good chance of, you know, death,” he said. “Death was kind of it. And so I just remember, keep breathing and keep praying and just keep, keep, breathing and get me to the hospital.”
White was rushed to a hospital, where a coagulant stopped the bleeding — a step he credits with saving his life.
“That ultimately saved my life, but in that process, [I] saw angels, saw the whole near-death experience, talked to God, the whole thing,” he said. “And it just, it humbled me down to my knees. I realized that rock bottom had a basement. It really got me to a spot where I didn’t know if I was gonna survive. And I just remember, keep breathing, keep rocking, and keep going.”
The stroke left him paralyzed on his left side and facing an uncertain future.
“All of that paralyzed my left side and completely left me in a paralytic situation on my left,” he said. “And that was when the mental battle started.”
“The doctors came in and told me that I’d had a hemorrhagic stroke and that I had a long road ahead of me,” he continued. “And that I would be lucky, they didn’t say this, but I heard them murmuring that I’ll be lucky to walk again, much less get back on stage.”
“That’s when my world kind of crashed in around me, like, ‘I’ve put so much time into this, and I’ve been so passionate about it. What am I going to do now? I’ve got a bedpan, and I can’t even feed myself.'”
Throughout recovery, White leaned heavily on faith, describing a deeply personal experience during his brush with death.
“My faith, I like to describe it like this. The sun feels different on my cheek than it does on your cheek,” he said. “That is fate for me. I am a Jesus-following guy that believes in that wholeheartedly. Met him, saw him, talked to him. It’s as real as me and you talking right now… He was like, ‘What’s going on? Tell me what’s up.’ It was the most peaceful I’d ever been in my life in that moment.”
“I was not scared, I was just not. It’s just like a transition,” he continued. “I could feel it. It was palpable. You know what I mean? I could touch it. It’s not this, like, cosmic psychedelic thing. I mean, for some people, it might be because the sun feels different. But whatever faith is for you, it meets you where you are. It meets you where you are in a hospital bed or in a car wreck or whatever it is. It met me where I was.”
“I can’t say what it does for anybody. But I am a man of faith. I believe in the Christian values. I believe in the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. I believe all this,” he added. “I choose to believe it… It gave me so much peace. It was the most peaceful I’ve ever been.”
