Anthrax Guitarist Undergoes Open Heart Surgery, Lives to Riff Another Day

BY Keith CarmanPublished Jun 8, 2009

It's been a whirlwind weekend for master watchmaker and former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz. The man responsible for the shredding guitar leads on some of thrash metal's most definitive albums underwent open heart surgery on Friday (June 5). During a family outing last week, Spitz suffered shortness of breath but shrugged it off until asking his children's doctor to check him out.

Before Spitz's knew it, he was in the emergency room, medics having detected that his main artery was 90 percent closed. Thankfully, the surgery went off without a hitch and Spitz is recuperating.

"I am home and live to riff another day," he writes in a press release, which thanks the "heartfelt emails" from his former band-mates and Megadeth's Dave Mustaine. "Those who know me closely are quite stunned that something such as this can happen so suddenly to a person who has worked out each and every day of their life, strict diets of no red meat for so many years I can't count, no drinking, no smoking and just an all-around healthy person."

It is presumed that Spitz's collaborative work with Accept bassist Peter Baltes on a new album will be held off temporarily.

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