Rod Stewart, 81, nearly fainted during a June 19 Utah concert, with crew bringing out an oxygen tank and mask as he struggled to breathe. He later told the audience he “nearly fainted” while trying to dance, then asked to sit for the next song.
Rod Stewart was only a few beats into “Young Turks” on Friday night, June 19, when the moment changed.
In concert footage. the 81-year-old singer leans against a piano and other objects onstage during his One Last Time Tour in Utah. At one point, he turns toward the backstage crew. Shortly after. a crew member brings out an oxygen tank and mask. and multiple people come out to help while the crowd applauds.
Stewart takes a breath. turns back toward the audience. and says into the microphone. “The show must go on.” As he returns to center stage. he tells the crowd he “nearly fainted up here” while “trying to do a … little step and the dance and everything.” Before launching into his next song. “Would you mind if I sat down for this one?”.
Stewart has faced serious health setbacks over the years, including thyroid cancer in the early 2000s, which left him unable to sing for nine months, and prostate cancer in 2017. In 2025, he canceled several shows after a lengthy bout with the flu.
The trouble breathing also coincided with a venue that sits at roughly 4. 300 feet above sea level: Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City. The oxygen response and his onstage admission about nearly fainting came fast. but they also fit a stark reality performers know well—when your body struggles. everything onstage depends on what you can do in that moment.
Those facts land together in a sequence that feels less like a dramatic stunt and more like damage control: Stewart had trouble breathing during the performance, the crew brought out oxygen, and he returned to the microphone to keep going—only this time with a request to sit.
Stewart’s extended One Last Time Tour has been running for two and a half years, with shows planned to wrap up in September after stops in Europe, the United States and Mexico.
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