Country Singer & Songwriter Phil Vassar Says He’s “Thankful” To Be Alive
Phil Vassar, country music singer, songwriter and pianist, explains he is “so thankful” to be alive following a massive heart attack and stroke.
Most well-known for writing some of country’s biggest hits including Tim McGraw’s “My Next Thirty Years,” Jo Dee Messina’s “Bye, Bye” and Alan Jackson’s “Right on the Money,” suffered a heart attack in early 2023 as a result of a genetic heart disease.
“I’m so thankful just to be alive,” Vassar told PEOPLE. “Just to be here talking about it is a cool moment. It was an experience coming through all that, but I feel better now than I’ve ever felt.”
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Vassar Says “Bad Genes” May Be To Blame
Vassar transitioned to a solo recording career in 2000, releasing his self-titled debut album. The project produced several hits, including “Carlene” and “Just Another Day in Paradise,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard country charts.
Regarding the heart attack and stroke, he shared he never really lived a lifestyle that would warrant such serious health complications, but does blame a bit of it on “bad genes.”
“I don’t know why it happened,” Vassar explained. “I never drank, I worked out every day, and I never ate fried food and all that stuff. My doctors were like, ‘It doesn’t matter. Bad genes and bad things — that’s what it comes down to sometimes.’ You just never know. I think about what could have been. I could’ve just been gone.”
The singer spent nearly five months recovering at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where he learned of his health conditions. He revealed that he died twice and didn’t have a heartbeat for some time.
“I honestly don’t remember any of it,” he shared. “I was really struggling for a long time. I had just done a Christmas tour with Deana Carter, and I don’t really remember any of the tour, not one second of the tour. I was really having a hard time. Even breathing was hard. I didn’t know why I didn’t feel well.”
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Vassar, who says he is “very grateful” to still be here, is moving forward, and released a new single titled “What It Means,” which came out on Friday (January 23). He said the journey of writing the song was helpful for him during his recovery process.
“You think being a songwriter, I could come up with words, but sometimes, I can’t,” Vassar continued. “I guess writing this song was another step in the whole recovery, you know? It was a cathartic experience. I’ve been writing songs for so long now, but ballads are hard for me to write. It’s hard to dig into some of that. They’re almost painful. It’s easier for me to talk about things when I write it in a song.”
