Sure, the physical grind of more than a hundred shows a year may have caught up with the 63-year-old; performing a two-hour show on artificial knees will exhaust even the greatest champions of their craft. But for the award-winning singer-songwriter and former decathlete, three years removed from the stroke and heart attack that “killed” him twice has now become the creative catalyst behind his drive to keep pushing for more opportunities.
He’s about to embark on tour with Old Dominion, just part of what he hopes will be a significantly busier schedule as he aims to double what he considers an “off year” of touring in 2025 – including 25 years of paradise tour, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of his breakthrough No. 1 hit.
“We did about 40 shows last year,” he says. “I said to my agent, ‘Let’s just double that this year.’ I’m excited to get out there and get in front of people and play. Hopefully we do at least 60 or 70 shows, that’s my thing.”
Two knee replacements in 2014 may have helped James Madison’s former song stand out from his famous piano leaps on stage, but Vassar’s current version is back and ready for a heavier workload. He has regained the more than 50 pounds he lost during his health scare – which left him, in his words, “unrecognizable” – and has added some new material to go along with his country catalog of No. 1 songs that he will once again present to his fans.
Over the past three years, Vassar has rebuilt his body through rehabilitation and a renewed and refined commitment to the weight room. Even though he may not be able to jump on the piano, he’s overcome enough health hurdles to regain his competitive edge, ready to burst out of the blocks and back onto the stage with the same enthusiasm as a 38-year-old in 2000 – the year ‘Just Another Day in Paradise’ reached No. 1.
He knows he’s lucky to be alive, let alone physically able to go on tour; doctors call his recovery a ‘miracle’. So this year’s American Heart Month hits differently when Vassar takes the stage this Saturday in Jackson, MS. It’s an important memory that the singer is eager to share with fans, and that perspective is reflected in his new song: “What It Means,” inspired by his ‘dying twice’ in 2023.
“It’s autobiographical in that respect,” he says. “I didn’t know my blood vessels were clogged, I had no idea. But now it’s different.”
His forced delay also did something he never experienced during his life on a tour bus: The downtime allowed Vassar to spend more time at home with his family, a reset he didn’t know he needed after decades of grinding on the road. Today, after overcoming a series of health hurdles that nearly ended his life, Vassar has found time to enjoy life at a slower pace than the days of overcoming obstacles during his peak years.
“I think getting back to nature and taking those long walks changed everything,” he says. “I like doing that. It’s part of my daily activities.”
However, the delay does not mean a shutdown for Vassar. The athlete mentality that once pushed him through the pain hasn’t disappeared, but his experience has allowed him to rewire his mentality into a smarter, goal-oriented approach. His comeback began with slow, fundamental physical and cognitive work. Nowadays those walks are longer and the weights lifted are again heavier, but not extreme.
For an old-school singer, Vassar has leaned heavily on new-age technology and recovery. In addition to tightening up his diet, he’s also added infrared sauna sessions, ice-cold pool dives and heavy use of a hyperbaric chamber, which he considers a gamechanger.
“I eat well, but I don’t do stupid things anymore,” he says. “I feel great. I’m training again, and I like feeling pain again. That’s when you know you’re doing something right.”
Phil Vassar ignored the signs before his heart attack
Vassar doesn’t remember the details of his heart attack on Feb. 4, 2023, or the stroke that followed five days later — or what it felt like to be dead twice.
“I wish I could tell you,” he says. “Everyone says, ‘Did you see anything? Did you talk to James Brown or see Elvis?’ But I don’t remember anything.”
In retrospect, the signs were there, even if he looked aesthetically torn at 60. In the year leading up to both the stroke and heart attack, Vassar said he felt exhausted and short of breath while constantly battling relentless acid reflux. Instead of being controlled, he chose to dig deeper into his track-and-field mentality: working harder on his music, pushing harder on stage and piling more weight on the bar, thinking that more effort would eliminate the symptoms.
“I was about 210 and trained all the time – I was pretty well polished,” he says. “I kept training harder and harder and thinking if I kept training I could get through it – and then I died.”
Only then did doctors discover a major cause: bad genetics. Statistically, however, the extent of his health problems was so severe that he should never have left the hospital, let alone returned to the stage.
“You shouldn’t be here. There’s no way you should have gone through this — you’re in a percentage of less than 1%,” Vassar recalled in 2024.
How Phil Vassar Trains Like an Athlete at 63 Without Breaking Down
Vassar says his return to exercise started slowly. After both events, his rehabilitation consisted of short walks and simple movements, such as shooting a basketball. Both were tiring at first.
Over time, those small steps turned into a real training plan. Vassar says the ego lifting and heavy lifting — at one point during his high school and college career, when he benched nearly 400 pounds — were gone. He trains like the athletic performer who still wants to nail the Steinway landing on the podium, but realizes that longevity is now the goal. The former college star has rebuilt his routine around joint-friendly strength training and low-impact cardio, to handle a tougher touring schedule without his body breaking down.
“Oh man, it’s a different workout when you’re 30 than it is when you’re 60,” he says. “But today I feel different.”
That reality check pushed him out of the “more is better” mentality and into a smarter, age-resistant routine. With two new knees and a new outlook, machines have taken over free weights.
“I like to do leg presses and stuff like that,” he says.
He has stopped sprinting and jumping, but fitness plays a heart-healthy role in his routine. “I can’t really run anymore, but I can walk and do those things, and I can ride my bike. So I’m in the Peloton a lot and trying to do better and better.”
How recovery technology – and 100 hyperbaric sessions – cleared his head
Outside of the weight room and recording studio, recovery tools have become an important part of the “Carlene” singer’s rehabilitation.
“I do the infrared sauna. I do ‘cold dips’ in the pool,” he says. “I found that stuff really helps me recover. It shocks your system.”
There was another symptom that went largely unnoticed before his heart attack: Phil Vassar needed rest. Whether at home or on the road, getting up in the middle of the night became routine, even though it was anything but normal.
“I couldn’t sleep, I slept maybe a few hours a day,” he says. “I stayed up all night. I was like a vampire, and I didn’t know what it was.”
Only later did he discover that clogged arteries were depriving his brain of oxygen. The biggest solution, he believes, is implementing hyperbaric oxygen therapy into his routine. He completed over 100 sessions during his recovery and still uses it.
“That stuff got me back so much faster, I think,” he says.
With hyperbaric oxygen therapy, you breathe pure oxygen while the air pressure is increased above normal in a small room in which you lie. That pressure forces much more oxygen into your bloodstream than you can normally get at sea level. This process is said to help speed tissue repair, reduce inflammation and remove metabolic waste. Many elite athletes are now integrating hyperbaric therapy into their regimens – including NBA legend LeBron James and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps – and MLB clubs such as the Philadelphia Phillies have begun incorporating hospital units into their training facilities.
With his heart recovering and his blood oversaturated with oxygen session after session, the lingering fog and oppressive yet exhausted feeling gradually subsided.
“I feel different,” he says now. “I feel I can breathe. My head is clear.”
The second chance that brought Phil Vassar back home
His brush with death came with an unexpected benefit: time. The downtime allowed the constantly traveling showman to make up for moments he missed with his family.
“I missed so much time with them being on the road for 25 years,” he says. “I missed the birth of your child. I flew home for a day for a game or a dance competition and then flew straight back home. It was quite tumultuous for a while.”
The heart attack and stroke forced him to slow down, and in that lull – his second chance – he realized how much normal life had missed in his stage life.
“I have so much more patience now,” he says. “Finally I can breathe, I can relax and I can sit down and watch TV. I’ve never been able to do that. It’s a completely different feeling and I feel great.”
During his road to recovery, his home became his rehabilitation center for a while – and the piano became his therapy for creating new music like ‘What It Means’.
“A lot of it was just hanging out and playing the piano,” he says. “I walk from room to room. I have different pianos in different rooms and change it up a bit.”
That same patience now determines how he approaches this next chapter on the road. Last year, from him 25 years of paradise tour was a great success. As he prepares to tour with Old Dominion in April, his goal is to add more shows beyond 2025. This time, or in the future, his career won’t come at the expense of his health.
“I want to get back out there and do the right things,” Vassar said. “I feel like a new person completely. I’m definitely grateful, and more so right now than I was.”
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