Pete Doherty: 'I was on life support machine after poisoning'

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Troubled Pete Doherty has revealed that his heart "stopped" and he was on a life support machine after being rushed to hospital.

The musician, who has battled drug addiction, cancelled a number of Irish shows last month which he had initially claimed was due to "exhaustion".

But the Babyshambles frontman has now admitted that he had been rushed to Swindon's Great Western Hospital after suffering "poisoning" at his Wiltshire home.

In an interview with NME, he said: "If I hadn't been on a life support machine I'd have been in Ireland, but my heart stopped."

Doherty, who missed Babyshambles shows in Dublin, Belfast and Galway, said drugs were not involved.

The wayward performer, who was recently fitted with another implant to keep him off heroin and cocaine, said he became ill at his home in Marlborough, but remembers little.

"It was a really strange turn of events. Obviously, their (the doctors') immediate thought was that it was to do with drugs, but it wasn't - it was some kind of poisoning," Doherty said.

"What happened? Well, I don't know, I don't remember. At the time I thought I was a taxi driver offering to take everyone to Elephant And Castle. I was running into the walls, making steering wheel signs with my hands. And then I just stopped. My body just stopped."

Doherty recalled: "I woke up and the doctors were asking 'Do you know your name?'. I said 'Yeah, Peter.' And they said 'Do you know where you are?'. I said 'Well, I'm in a hospital...'. It was like Twenty Questions."

Doherty said he was subsequently given the all-clear, but there are fears about his heart.

The singer - who kicks off his first Babyshambles tour for two years next month - said: "They're concerned about my heart rate.

"I've always had a slight dickie heart, I was born with it. I'm fragile in there, you know?"

The full interview is in this week's NME which is on sale tomorrow.