Jason Derulo feared death after neck-breaking accident
Jason Derulo instantly thought he was going to die when he broke his neck in a training accident in 2013.
Jason Derulo thought he was going to die when he broke his neck.
The 'Whatcha Say' singer was preparing for a tour in 2013 when he suffered an accident while training, and he's admitted listening to the personal trainer he'd hired, who repeatedly had him doing back tucks - where a person jumps backwards to land on their hands before pushing off the ground with their arms to end up on their feat again - was one of the "worst ideas somebody's ever had".
He recalled to Paris Hilton on her 'I Am Paris' podcast: "S*** was crazy.I had this tour set up — it was the biggest tour of my life at that point.
“He had me doing like 50 back tucks back to back to back, which is another one of the worst ideas somebody’s ever had. So I slipped during one of the back tucks and I landed on my head, breaking my C2 vertebrae.”
Jason immediately thought he was going to die.
He said: “As soon as it happened, I heard a big crack, and I was just like, ‘Holy s***, is this it? Is this how it all ends?’
"And all the thoughts that you could imagine are going through my head at the time.”
But despite his pain, the 34-year-old singer got back on his feet and tried to put on a brave face so he didn't worry his mother, who was waiting outside the gym in his car.
He recalled: “I did not wanna alarm her, so after five minutes of laying on the ground, I got myself together and walked to the car holding my neck.
"And then I’m like, ‘Mom, I think I hurt myself a little bit’ — like with that bright kind of voice — ‘I think I hurt myself a little bit inside, we should probably go to the hospital just to check it out.’
“Now every single bump [in the car] feels like hell on Earth. I’m just dying in that passenger seat, but I don’t wanna let her know that.”
Jason underwent a string of tests, including X-rays, where doctors broke the news he was lucky to be alive.
He recalled one medic told him: “Well, I have some good news and some bad news.
“The good news is that you have a hangman’s break, which is the same break that happens when you get hung. And you’re still alive. This could’ve ended up way crazier: paralysed or worse. That’s the good news, that you’re still here with us, and you can move all your limbs.
"The bad news is you’re gonna be out for seven months.”
The 'Talk Dirty' hitmaker felt particularly guilty because he would be letting down his fans by pulling the tour.
He said: "I had to let all these people down. I know how much this means to people, people save their money, their hard-earned money, and they wanna be part of this experience. All of a sudden all of that s*** was down the drain.”
