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Matthew Sweet’s management team thanked fans and supporters for helping raise enough money to transport the musician to his hometown in Nebraska after he suffered what they had earlier described as a “debilitating” stroke in Toronto.
Sweet, who turned 60 earlier this month, was preparing for an Oct. 14 show as opening act for Hanson at Massey Hall when the life-threatening episode occurred. He also had headlining gigs, as well as shows in support of the Jayhawks, before the end of this year that have now been cancelled.
“With your direct help, Matthew was able to check out of the hospital in Toronto and successfully return to Omaha on board a medical flight attended by two nurses with medical equipment to keep him stable,” Catherine Lyons of Russell Carter Management said in an update on a GoFundMe site for Sweet on Wednesday.
Lyons said that Sweet was admitted to a rehabilitation hospital in Omaha, where doctors will assess the musician and provide a plan for what she said was a “long, tough road to recovery.”
“Needless to say, Matthew will not be able to return to performing concerts anytime soon,” she said.
In an earlier post, Lyons said that “doctors and hospital care in Toronto were instrumental in saving Matthew’s life.” In a statement to Variety on Tuesday, Russell Carter Management said Sweet had originally been admitted to Toronto Western Hospital.
As an American in the Canadian health-care system, his management has said, Sweet incurred significant costs for his treatment. Pledges on the fundraising site have amounted to more than $310,000 US as of early Thursday.
Recording for nearly 40 years
Born in Lincoln, Neb., Sweet moved to Georgia to attend university in the early 1980s and became part of the burgeoning music scene in Athens led by R.E.M. and the B-52s. Sweet recorded some tracks with Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and spent time as a backing musician in Oh-OK, a group that featured Stipe’s sister Linda.
After releasing two albums for A&M Records in the 1980s that were not widely heard, Sweet’s 1991 release Girlfriend on independent label Zoo lifted his profile, with the title track and I’ve Been Waiting played frequently on alternative rock stations, as well as on MTV.
Sweet’s reputation for accessible, melodic guitar-based songs was burnished by the follow-up release 100% Fun, with its singles Sick of Myself and We’re the Same. Sweet has released several albums since then, the most recent being 2021’s Catspaw.
Sweet also released three Under the Covers albums with Susanna Hoffs from the Bangles, which saw the pair take on songs from other artists recorded between the 1960s and 1980s. Sweet and Hoffs had been previously seen on-screen together as part of the mock band Ming Tea in the Austin Powers movies, which were directed by Hoffs’s husband, Jay Roach.