Grammy Award-winning R&B legend cancels concert in SC after heart attack
Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Peabo Bryson suffered a heart attack Saturday, Rolling Stone reported, forcing him to cancel some appearances on his concert tour.
The 68-year-old “is awake and responsive” and in stable condition at a Marietta, Georgia, hospital, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Both his medical team and family are optimistic for a speedy recovery,” a representative for Bryson said after the South Carolina native suffered a “mild heart attack,” per Entertainment Weekly.
Despite the optimistic prognosis, Bryson has canceled several upcoming concerts on his tour. That includes a scheduled performance in his home state.
Bryson’s May 16 concert at Greenville’s Peace Center was canceled, WHNS reported.
All tickets will be “automatically refunded,” but the venue is hopeful it can schedule another concert featuring Bryson, according to WSPA.
Weekend shows in Akron, Ohio were also canceled, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Information on other concerts on his tour, including performances at the Walt Disney World Resort (May 12-13), a show in Mableton, Georgia (July 20), and a European swing in October, is unavailable.
Bryson’s work on songs featured in Disney movies won him two Grammy Awards, according to Entertainment Weekly. He sang a duet with Celine Dion on the 1992 hit “Beauty and the Beast,” and another in 1993 with Regina Belle on the song “A Whole New World,” the magazine reported.
The latter, featured in the film “Aladdin,” was Bryson’s biggest hit, going to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
But it was not his only hit, as he climbed the Billboard charts with songs “If Ever You’re In My Arms Again,” and “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” which was a duet with Roberta Flack, in addition to a collaboration with Kenny G, “By The Time This Night Is Over.”
Bryson is “the first artist in music history to have separate records topping four different charts,” according to the South Carolina General Assembly, which honored him in May 2018 by naming part of a Greenville street “Robert Peabo Bryson Boulevard,” according to a resolution.
While he was a consistent hitmaker in the 1970s and 1980s, with “17 Top 20 R&B hits and ... three different gold-certified albums,” he only made one album in the 2000s, Rolling Stone reported.
But last August, Bryson released a new collection of songs called “Stand for Love,” according to Billboard. His producers on that album, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, said, “Peabo is just one of the greatest voices of our time. He exudes a class and sophistication that’s so needed in music today,” per Billboard.
He also was close with the late Aretha Franklin, saying being around her was like being with “the queen,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Grammy Award-winning R&B legend cancels concert in SC after heart attack."
