Patti Smith discharged from hospital ‘in good health’, Italian authorities say

Priestess of punk was reportedly held under ‘a short period of observation in emergency’

Punk icon Patti Smith is reportedly “in good health” after being rushed to hospital following a “sudden illness”.

The 76-year-old – who recently spoke of her long-term bronchial battle – had been due to perform at the Duse Theater in Bologna, Italy, on Tuesday 12 December, but the show was cancelled at short notice

Smith was taken to the Maggiore hospital in Bologna and put under observation after falling ill, Italian news source TG Com 24 said.

A notice was shared to the Instagram page of the Teatro Duse Bologna venue that had been due to host Smith, announcing her show had been cancelled “due to a sudden illness that struck the artist”.

“We are all sorry for the inconvenience caused by this news. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery go to the artist,” the statement said.

On Wednesday (13 December) evening, the Local Health Authority of Bologna told the Los Angeles Times that the singer was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday after “a short period of observation in emergency”.

“Patti Smith is discharged and in good health condition,” the statement added. The LA Times has seen photos of a smiling Smith posing with hospital staff.

The Independent has contacted Smith’s representatives for comment.

Patti Smith (2022 Invision)

Smith spoke about her health in an interview with The Guardian in 2020, where she revealed that she had struggled during the pandemic because she suffers from a lifelong bronchial condition.

“To be in limbo almost 10 months, for a person like me who doesn’t like sitting in the same place, it’s been very challenging. I feel like I’m part-wolf, roaming from room to room,” she said.

Known as the punk poet laureate or “godmother of punk”, the 76-year-old Smith most recently played at the Modena Cathedral on Saturday, as part of an eight-date tour around Italy.

She is next scheduled to play the Malibran theatre in Venice tomorrow night (Thursday 14 December.)

Smith has remained active since she first rose to prominence in the early Seventies, when she released her critically adored debut album, Horses, in 1975. Her best known song, “Because the Night” written with Bruce Springsteen and hit No 13 on the US charts in 1978.

She has released a number of books, including her best-selling memoir Just Kids, in which she details her early life in New York with her lover and friend Robert Mapplethorpe, and a follow-up, M Train.

In 2016, she gave an unusually nervous performance to mark singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize for literature, where she stumbled through a rendition of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”.

She celebrated her 74th birthday in 2021 with a performance aired on screens at Picadilly Circus in London, where she read a new poem dedicated to climate activist Greta Thunberg.