Chris Young Explains His Accident
On June 5th, it was reported that Chris Young had cut his left hand in a kitchen accident. The next day, he was forced to cancel his appearance at CMA Fest. This week, Chris co-hosted Country Countdown USA with his arm in a sling to explain the full story behind his accident:
So how’re you? “I’m good. I really am. Luckily I don’t have the full arm cast.”
So what happened? “If you drop a knife, don’t try to catch it. I grabbed it, so it put it in pretty good. I cut two tendons, two arteries, and some nerves. It was in two spots in my hand because it was a double-sided knife. I was cutting an apple, so I dropped it, and thought, I’ll just catch it! Not for people with weak stomachs, but it looked like somebody had killed several small animals in my house, it was really bad.”
“I was really lucky, because my sister and guitar player were in my house, because we’d just played my fan club party. My sister called 911 for an ambulance. She obviously was a little distraught, and the operator was telling her to calm down. She finally gave up talking to the 911 operator, and we ran outside to get a cab. The first cab that came by already had a passenger, so she gave him $100, and he got out, and we took the cab over to the hospital, which was only about a mile away. They got me to the hospital pretty quick, and I’ll be alright. It’s going to be an awesome scar.”
How many fingers did you cut? “They were worried about my thumb, and the two fingers in the center of my hand. I cut right by my thumb, and right under my ring finger. The worst part was that I hit the arteries. My sister said blood shot over my shoulder.”
So how long are you in the cast and sling? “I’m in this thing for 6 to 8 weeks. So I’m about halfway in. I’ll probably go another 9-10 weeks in physical therapy on my hand, getting it back to where it used to be. My surgeon told me once this thing comes off I can attempt to play guitar. That’s what I did before, attempt to play it. So that’s good news.”
Jake Owen was our co-host a couple weeks ago, and he told us you & he texted after your accident. How are you able to text? “I still have my right hand, it was probably a little slower. I remember when I did it, it was late Thursday, so Friday I was in surgery. I didn’t even get my phone until I was out of surgery and in a bed. I remember I had 347 missed text messages! But Jake was cool, I told him what I did, and he said, ‘Dude, the only thing I can tell you is do whatever they tell you.’ Because he cut a couple fingers last year in a go cart accident, so he’s been through just about the same thing. But he’s a great dude. I’m glad I’m friends with him.”
“The most terrifying thing that anyone’s ever told me, I’m in there, my third of fourth visit to the hospital, seeing my physical therapist. And I asked if I had to wear the sling on stage, because it looks a little weird, and they said they just want to make sure it remains immobilized. If you try to accidently move your hand, your tendons will snap like wet spaghetti. So I won’t do that!”
“There are three things I can’t do right now that are driving me nuts. One is I can’t play guitar. Obviously that’s irritating. But surprisingly, when I get back to playing guitar, I may do more songs without a guitar, because I enjoy moving around a little more on stage. The other thing that bothers me is I can’t play X-Box on the bus. I literally figured out how the play Tiger Woods with one hand. But that’s about it. The third thing is steak. How can you hold it down to cut it up? Somebody walked in the other day, and I had a piece of steak from catering in my hand full-on cave man, and I was like, ‘Don’t judge me. I’m eating this steak, it’s really good.'”
So which was the strangest thing to get used to: Not wearing your hat or not playing the guitar? “Hat, because I got more questions about it. You thought I’d started wearing purple clothes.”
Chris drove himself to the studio to do the show. We watched, and he’s able to buckle his own seat belt. The only real problem he had was putting on the headphones. It helps to have two hands putting them on over both ears.
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