Last Updated: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 | 4:40 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Surveying the damage inflicted by a motorcycle accident last month — his collarbone and pelvis fractured, six ribs broken and a still-worrisome amount of internal bleeding — Daniel Lanois cannot help but think of how lucky he is.
The crash that brought his summer to a screeching halt could have been much worse.
"Hey man, I'm lucky to be alive," Lanois told The Canadian Press on Tuesday in a telephone interview from California, where he's recuperating.
"It could have been spinal. Luckily, I was wearing a full-face helmet. It could have been a head injury. It could have been anything.
"I almost died."
Hit singer, songwriter and music producer Daniel Lanois, seen in an undated photo, says he's lucky to be alive after his motorcycle accident in Los Angeles in June. (Canadian Press)
'Old school accident'
The accident occurred on the first weekend of June in the scenic Silverlake enclave of Los Angeles. Lanois, 58, was riding his dazzling BMW HP2 Megamoto — a two-cylinder Supermoto with a sleek blue frame and white tank. He was en route to the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood, eager to hear a new band that had come highly recommended from a friend (he can no longer remember the act's name).
He was driving straight when somebody in front of him turned to abruptly pull into a corner store. Lanois sensed an impending collision and acted swiftly.
"I realized I was going to hit him, so I swerved to miss him," he recalled. "I missed him, but then I hit a static box on the sidewalk. It was like a little telephone box, and I smashed into that.
"That's it. I blacked out. When I came to, I was looking at the sky, and just people trying to help me. And somebody called 911, and that was it. They hauled me away.
"It was just an unfortunate accident. Old-school accident. Nothing crazy high-speed or anything. Just 35 miles an hour."
Lanois was then sequestered in intensive care in a California hospital for three weeks. Upon returning home, he was tended to by nurses, day and night.
'It's been kind of overwhelming and very sweet to receive so much attention.'
—Daniel Lanois
He wasn't able to walk, so with his bed parked in the foyer of his L.A. home, his assistant set up some rings — "like gymnastics," he notes with a laugh — to allow him to pull himself out of bed.
"The night nurse was quite impressed with that display," he says with another laugh.
Indeed, the unfailingly friendly Lanois is surprisingly sanguine about the life-threatening incident. The Quebec-born, Hamilton-raised producer chuckles often when recounting the details of the past month, whether marvelling at the way broken bones can fuse back together or kidding about soliciting sympathy for his condition.
"I'm using the Ray Charles technique," he joked, "which is [to] act more blind when the girls come 'round."
Lengthy road to recovery
But Lanois is still in the thick of a long recovery. He's most concerned about the amount of internal bleeding he may have suffered in the accident.
"The real problem is lots of bleeding around the lung," he said. "It has to be drained and monitored. A broken bone is not so bad, but internal bleeding is not so good.
Internationally celebrated music producer and singer-songwriter Daniel Lanois, seen posing with his star at the Canada's Walk of Fame gala in 2005, has already returned to work following his motorcycle accident, with a new Neil Young album set for release. (Tobin Grimshaw/Canadian Press)
"The main concern is my lung capacity. Because I think it's currently restricted by bruising around the lung, and there might be some dried blood laying in the bottom of the cavity there. So my lung is kind of bumping up against this big scab and scar tissue. So that's the concern, really.
"And I'm going to know better after I do a scan in a couple weeks."
There are signs of progress, too. Lanois regained his mobility 10 days ago, and he's hopeful that his broken bones will heal.
"I think the bones are going to be OK," he said. "I might look a little crooked, because the collarbone didn't mend straight, and neither did the ribs, so it's all a little cockeyed.
"But as long as I'm wearing my costume, you might not notice."
Lanois has been riding motorcycles since he was 16, and said this was his first accident. When asked whether he would ever ride again, he responded with a chuckle: "Well, I'm not going to ride this season."
He was more serious, however, about an outpouring of support from fans that lifted his spirits during a difficult recovery process.
"It's been kind of overwhelming and very sweet to receive so much attention," he said.
And of course, that attention hasn't only been flowing from fans. Lanois, who has won Grammy Awards for his collaborations with U2, Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris, has received an outpouring of support from his peers as well.
Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant sent Lanois text messages lightly chiding him for his chosen mode of transportation ("You don't have to be on a motorcycle to get lucky," Plant told him) while Lanois said he also commiserated with Bono, who was recovering from emergency back surgery.
Already back to work
The accident did threaten to derail a typically busy year for the tireless Lanois. He had to postpone the debut release from his group Black Dub (it's now coming in early November, he said) as well as a planned tour, which he now hopes to complete next summer. For now, he says he still must avoid air travel.
Still, the accident didn't keep from him resuming work on Neil Young's latest album, which Lanois says is "fantastic."
"We followed a simple philosophy: it's a solo record," he said of the latest work from the legendary Toronto-born rocker, which Lanois says will be out in late fall.
"So it does not have a band, but it's rocking. And he's really come in with the songs, they're terrific. I dare say it might be some of his best work in some time. We've really hit the motherlode.
"I've worked with Neil over the years in small doses … but we had never done something together from scratch. So let me put it this way: there's an automatic communication system that exists between two Canadian dogs. It's been a lot of fun, and we're very dedicated, and I think I finally met my match."
Lanois sounds relieved to be back to work. In fact, he resumed work on Young's record almost immediately upon returning home from intensive care. Never one to waste much time, Lanois certainly isn't going to start now.
"I've always tried to make every minute count," he said. "But maybe that thought applies more now than it did before."
Daniel Lanois, seen second from right, has received an outpouring of support since the accident from his fans and peers, including U2 (from left, Adam Clayton, The Edge, Bono and Larry Mullen, far right). (Reed Saxon/Associated Press)
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