Chuck Berry was so exhausted at his concert in Chicago Saturday night that the 84-year-old legend was escorted off stage after slumping at his piano.
In an email to the Daily News, the singer's rep, Dick Alen, said the incident was due to "last night exhaustion" -- he had performed two shows in New York the night before -- and that Berry was "currently on plane on way home."
Sporting a red sequined shirt and a white sailor hat, the "Johnny B. Goode" singer was in the midst of playing the piano when he stopped and appeared to collapse over his keyboard, concertgoer Steve Handwerker said.
"Obviously, something was off. Fifteen minutes into the set it went from fine to something wasn't right," the Congress Theater concert promoter Michael Petryshyn said, according to The Chicago Tribune.
"He was starting songs mid-song, playing 15 seconds of a song."
Though Berry picked up his guitar soon after his collapse, he was subsequently joined on stage by a bunch of burly men and was escorted off stage an hour into what the Chicago Tribune called a "rapidly-deteriorating concert."
An audience member said Berry was backstage for 20 minutes, though he returned to explain what happened to the crowd as his registered doctor stood nearby.
"I begged him to let me come out and say something to my fans here," Berry told the crowd. "When I was sitting at the piano and stopped playing, I was about a 10. I had to lay my head on the piano; I had no strength at all."
He added that after 10 minutes of "blood pressure and all that stuff," he felt like he was "about 65 or 70."
Berry then went to grab his guitar but someone apparently took it, causing the crowd to boo.
"They're afraid I'm gonna do my scoot, but I'm gonna try to do my scoot for you anyway," he said.
The octogenarian then proceeded to duck walk his way off the stage to cheers from the crowd.
Fire Department spokesman Joe Roccasalva said Berry felt better after his check-up and signed a release.
A Chicago fire official added that Berrry had been checked out by ambulance medics before the show.
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