“They thought they were going to lose me because my vitals were out of control. That’s when a miracle happened. The nurses were baffled”: Jamie Foxx says his daughter saved his life by playing guitar
Hollywood A-lister Jamie Foxx has said his daughter’s guitar playing saved his life after he was placed into a coma back in 2023.
The Django Unchained actor suffered a serious medical scare in April 2023, after he was suddenly hospitalized as a result of a mysterious illness while working on upcoming film Back in Action in Atlanta.
The Foxx family kept the specifics of the medical emergency private, but it was recently revealed during the Oscar-winner’s new Netflix Special – Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… – that he had suffered a stroke caused by a bleed on the brain. The bleed resulted in him losing his memory for 20 days and left him unable to walk.
During those days, he was in a coma, and it wasn’t until his youngest daughter, Anelise, secretly turned up at the hospital with her guitar that the star’s fortunes started to turn.
Recalling the experience in his Netflix special, Foxx says, “They said at one point, the first 15 days, they thought they were going to lose me because my vitals were out of control.
“There was a 13 or 14 day period where they said, ‘We've gotta keep him calm and we’ve given him every medication... It's not working, we gotta keep him calm because his vitals are so high we're going to lose him.’”
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was... is now playing only on Netflix! #JamieFoxx - YouTube
Foxx’s situation appeared so troubling that his family traveled to be by his bedside. At one point, Anelise snuck into her father’s room with her guitar to offer some comfort – and her music seemingly brought Foxx back from the brink.
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“That's when a miracle happened, and that miracle was working through my youngest daughter,” Foxx goes on. “She’s 14. I didn’t want her to see me like that. But she snuck into my hospital room with her guitar, and she says, ‘I know what my daddy needs.’
“They said when she was playing, my vitals went down. The nurses at the nurses station were baffled. Like, ‘Wow, what did they give him?’ They rushed into the room and she said, ‘Ssh. I got him.’
“Do you know what I found out? That God was in that guitar. That's my spiritual defibrillator.”
Addressing his daughter directly, Foxx says, “Thank you for stepping up when all was lost,” before inviting Anelise – wielding a tasty Rickenbacker electric guitar – onstage to perform an original song together.
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… is streaming on Netflix now.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
