“When people said I probably wouldn't be able to play again, I wasn't going to listen to that”: Scottish guitarist relearns how to play guitar with one arm after severe stroke
Tony Romaine spent months relearning how to walk after suffering a stroke that left him unable to move – but was determined to relearn guitar and start gigging again
Tony Romaine Standing Stone.. Stroke couldn't stop me finishing and releasing this song #stroke - YouTube
Two years ago, Scottish guitarist Tony Romaine spent seven months in hospital recovering from a stroke that struck him out of the blue, leaving him unable to move or even cry for help – let alone reunite with his beloved instrument.
However, last year, the guitarist took the stage to perform for the first time since the incident, with plans to play even more shows this year after teaching himself to play the guitar with one arm.
“I couldn't imagine not doing music in my life,” Romaine tells the BBC. “When people said I probably wouldn't be able to play again, I wasn't going to listen to that. There was probably a part of me that was like ‘I'll prove you wrong’ but I just had to get back to playing again.”
It all started in 2022 when Romaine, who was a regular performer around Inverness, pushed himself to play a couple of shows despite feeling unwell.
“The day after the gig I had a rest day, so I was sitting on the couch and ordering a takeaway,” he recalls. “By the time the takeaway got there, I was finding it difficult to move around but I just thought I was tired and under the weather. I never thought it would be anything like a stroke.
“By the time everyone was going to bed I was saying I would just stay there a bit longer, and I lay down. Next thing I knew, I couldn't move at all. I went to shout out and realized I couldn't speak either. I was lying there all night, wide awake and thinking, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
Early the next morning, Romaine's wife, Lynn, came downstairs, discovered her husband, and urgently phoned for an ambulance. However, doctors initially told her that there was nothing they could do to break up the clot to his brain stem that had caused the stroke – a case so severe that Romaine had to be fed through tubes for several weeks while at Inverness' Raigmore Hospital.
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After months of rehab and physiotherapy, Romaine managed to sit up, with the target of getting himself to the point of walking again. However, he was already trying to devise a plan to get back to playing guitar.
“I was thinking about music from the first day I was in hospital,” he admits. “There was so much stuff going through my head at that point but I was thinking that I'd have to cancel gigs and I was trying to figure out how I was going to do it.”
As he continued to make progress, Romaine slowly started to relearn the guitar – despite his left arm and hand being out of action – kicking things off with a stripped-back arrangement of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby.
“It's not like I could just go to a guitar teacher, but once I figured out a couple of techniques it became a case of practicing them, which was easier.”
Soon, Romaine was not only relearning songs but also composing brand-new material. By August 2024, he had released his single Standing Stone and returned to the stage in Inverness for the first time since the incident with a 30-minute set.
“I was absolutely exhausted,” he confesses. “I stood out of my wheelchair at the end and my legs were shaking. But I'm growing in stamina all the time – I'm hoping to do an hour and a half, maybe split into two 45-minute sets, for my next gigs.”
As for his upcoming performances this year, they come with a renewed purpose: raising money for Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, a charity that played a key role in Romaine's rehab journey.
“When I was in hospital I saw people who had given up, and that made me really sad,” he explains.
“I understand it, it's a terrible thing to go through but I wouldn't want anyone to give up - I want people to know that you can come through this.”
Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she's not writing, you'll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.
