EXCLUSIVE: Duran Duran's John Taylor Speaks To HuffPost UK About Nick Rhodes' Recent Illness On US Tour
Posted: 14/09/2012 07:55 Updated: 14/09/2012 08:36
Duran Duran's John Taylor has opened up about his bandmate Nick Rhodes' brush with illness, which brought their recent tour to an early close in the United States.
"Nick is a workaholic, one of the most driven men I know, and he just hit the wall," Taylor has revealed to HuffPost UK.
"He was having fainting spells, it was very frightening, but he saw a doctor, and was made to rest.
"His immediate treatment was to do as little possible, for as long as possible.
"We don't have plans to work as a band until the New Year, so now he needs to look after himself."
Taylor admits that Rhodes' plight shook him up, particularly after they'd had to cancel shows earlier on the tour due to frontman Simon Le Bon suffering throat problems.
"If Duran Duran is a plane, Simon is the nose-cone, in fact his voice is the nose-cone, and we work like One Direction, we go for it.
"So Simon went down at the beginning of the tour, and Nick went down at the end, and it could have been me or Roger (Taylor). It's a warning for all of us.
"Nick always says we're an aristocratic band with a working class work ethic, but you just never know if you're coming back. We didn't know.
"One show gets cancelled and you think 'okay', then it's a second one and suddenly the tour's over."
Taylor agrees that at some point the band will have to refine their gruelling touring schedule...
"More performances in fewer places - you can see why Elton and Rod love their stints in Las Vegas, but at the moment we still love touring, so we'll record the next album and then see where we are, and in the meantime look after each other."
The band, who have toured constantly since their reunion in 2001 and sold more than 100 million records in three decades, are planning to record another studio album before hitting the road again.
John Taylor's autobiography In The Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran is on sale now. See pictures of Duran Duran through the years below...
Read HuffPost UK's full interview with John Taylor at the weekend...
