Patti Smith “in good health” following sudden hospitalisation in Italy

Patti Smith has been discharged from a hospital in Italy and is “in good health”, according to the Local Health Authority of Bologna.

On Tuesday (December 12), Smith was rushed to Bologna’s Maggiore hospital before she could perform at the city’s Duse Theatre that night. Later, the venue announced the show’s cancellation.

In a press release translated from Italian, the theatre stated: “With great regret, we inform the kind audience that Patti Smith’s concert will not be able to go on stage due to a sudden illness that struck the artist”.

The next day, per reporting from the Los Angeles Times, the Local Health Authority of Bologna issued a statement saying that Smith has been “discharged” after “a short period of observation in emergency”, asserting that she was in “good health conditions”. The medical team added that it hopes to see the ‘Because The Night’ singer return to the stage after “an appropriate period of rest”.

The same day Smith was discharged, she took to Instagram to acknowledge the late Tom Verlaine’s birthday, making no references to her illness or hospitalisation. “This is Tom Verlaine’s birthday,” her latest post wrote. “If a birch tree was a somnambulant. If a bluebird was no more.”

Smith was in Bologna as part of an eight-date tour of Italy. Entitled “A Tour Of Italian Days”, the live dates supported the release of her new book, A Book Of Days, which she released in November 2022. The book compiles more than 365 photographs and documents Smith’s life “on and off the road” over the course of a year.

Smith’s last performance in Italy took place on December 11 at Siena’s Duomo di Siena. The Los Angeles Times also reports that Smith’s upcoming concert in Venice today (December 14) and book-signing event in Milan tomorrow have been cancelled. Whether these appearances will be rescheduled has yet to be announced.

Following her Italian tour, Smith will return to the United States for a date at The Salt Shed in Chicago, before wrapping up the year with two shows at New York City’s Brooklyn Steel on December 29 and 30, the second of which takes place on her birthday.

In September, she made a surprise appearance during The National’s Homecoming festival set, dueting with frontman Matt Berninger on the band’s ‘Trouble Will Find Me’ cut ‘I Need My Girl’. In June, Smith participated in Greta Thunberg’s final school strike while on tour in Stockholm, and was pictured with Thunberg’s group in a post she made to Instagram. “She graduates today, and we extend our gratitude and congratulations,” she wrote.

In March, she joined Graham Nash, Nancy Wilson, Bruce Hornsby and more to perform at a Paul McCartney tribute concert in Carnegie Hall, covering The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ highlight, ‘She’s Leaving Home’.

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