Legendary heavy metal drummer Mikkey Dee has candidly opened up about his harrowing, near-fatal battle with sepsis. During a recent June 9 appearance on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk“, the former Motörhead and current Scorpions drummer reflected on the severe December 2024 health crisis that left him fighting for his life after what initially appeared to be a simple foot sprain.
When asked about his current physical condition, Mikkey Dee provided a thorough update on his health.
“I’m fine. I’ve been fine since, I would say, March last year. I did have a huge scare. I got caught with sepsis, and my right foot was swelling up like an old Christmas ham, you know what I mean? And I had three operations on that. They had to cut open the foot and half the leg. And I was very close to losing my life there because I came in with such an tremendous infection in my body. And then there was a very big scare to lose my right leg. But I responded well to that antibiotics, and also I was strong in body, I suppose. That must have helped. I played hockey two or three times a week during that time. That was wintertime, December [of 2024], January [of 2025]. But I did spend five weeks in the hospital here in Gothenburg [Sweden], and they did a tremendously good job on me and saved both my life and my leg. And then I did a really good recovery, I have to say,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
The drummer went on to explain the intense rehabilitation process that dominated the following year, highlighting his triumphant, albeit physically demanding, return to the stage at the Vive Latino festival in Mexico City in March 2025.
“In March [of 2025] I was declared bacteria-free, and then there was basically recovery time on that,” he continued. “Last year was one big recovery, but I felt great. And just to build muscle again and stamina. And we did play that one show in Mexico City in front of 100,000 people by the end of March [of 2025]. I couldn’t really do the full show with my foot. I lost a lot of muscle in it and it was swelled up and stuff. So my son Marcus had to step in and do seven songs. I did, like, six songs and he did seven and kind of saved my a** there a little bit. He did fantastic. And, yeah, that was great. But today I’m doing just fine.”
When discussing the medical mystery behind his life-threatening illness, Mikkey Dee admitted that doctors are still unsure exactly how the infection managed to take root so aggressively.
“We don’t really know. It’s a yellow staphylococcus [group of spherical bacteria] that we have on our skin, and it’s a very aggressive one if it enters your bloodstream or your immune system didn’t take care of it, obviously,” he revealed. “Maybe I had a little weakened immune system at that point, so it established itself in my body, and you get sick in days. We’re talking hours. I mean, people die left and right of this s**t. It’s very, very aggressive because it capsule itself so your immune system can’t really penetrate whatever. It’s just horrible. And I got so sick so quick, and, yeah, it gave me a big scare. I was so sick, I didn’t really think about it at that time because my body was shutting down on me. But later, you think, ‘Holy s**t, that was a close call.'”
Detailing the frightening onset of the symptoms, the musician emphasized how quickly the situation deteriorated and the lasting lessons he took away from the traumatic ordeal.
“I think that when you get sick like this, you will have a high fever and stuff. I didn’t. I just felt something was really wrong, and I got sick by the hour. And in the end, I just called an ambulance. I was turning yellow. My liver was infected of it and the gallbladder and the whole body was shutting down on me. And it was just ambulance straight up to the hospital here, one of the hospitals. And, no, today, I’ve gone through a lot of talking to doctors and stuff. When I was visiting the hospitals after I got well, they wanted to keep an eye on me. And I said, “I’m not thinking too much about it.’ The only thing I do think about is how easy, if you get an infection, it could be just your finger… I mean, a friend of mine, she caught it off an earring… And that’s pretty scary. So I tell my boys and my friends about this a little bit. Just keep an eye out for if you get a cut somewhere today,” Mikkey added.
Reflecting on the broader prevalence of the condition, Mikkey Dee expressed his disbelief at how common severe bacterial infections have become, comparing it to his decades of risky touring experience.
“I don’t know — it seems to have escalated tremendously, this disease, if you will. People catch it left and right. I never heard about this when growing up. You could hear it maybe an old man, 90 years old or something, have a cut on a leg that wouldn’t heal, and six months later it turned into sepsis. And it’s a blood poisoning, basically. But today I hear it left and right. People catch it for no reason, really. They don’t know what happened. They just had an infection, a little wound somewhere, and it seemed to escalate to something really this bad. I have no idea. I said to my doctors, ‘I’ve played drums my whole life and basically bleeding a little bit. I cut my fingers and elbows and hands every show.’ And you shake people’s hands and you try to keep away from infection, but I had so many smaller infections in my fingers and hands and suddenly this shows up. But they think that this was capsuled in my lower back, this bacteria, like joints. It likes to sit in your knee joints, your ankles, your hips, your spine, your shoulders, stuff like that. That’s what I understand, that it enjoys tight spaces, a lot of oxygen, and not a lot of blood. It started a party on my foot, and, boy, was that a party, I tell you. It just blew up like a small basketball,” he concluded.
In December last year, while speaking on a “Metal Sticks” podcast hosted by former Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain and Modern Drummer CEO David Frangioni, Dee said: “I got caught with sepsis, and I was in the hospital for five weeks, struggling, really. From the beginning it was a struggle for my life, basically, I would say. I did not realize that at the time, of course, but the further down the road we went, I realized how serious this was.”
The infection ravaged his body, leading to organ failure and requiring multiple emergency surgeries to save his limb.
“I had three operations on my right foot and calf. They had to cut open three times and stop the infection that my foot blew up, like an overcooked Christmas ham. It was unbelievable,” he described. “And my liver and gallbladder was shutting down. I was yellow and I had a tremendous infection in my body. So I was fighting heavy for that.”
Dee credited the medical teams across three Swedish hospitals for their “amazing job,” noting that amputation was a very real possibility.
“[They managed] not to even amputate my leg, because that was very close, to cut that bad boy off,” he admitted.
Dee confessed that he still performs in significant pain.
“The foot in itself kind of hurts in the joints… By the end of a set, I have to kind of limp off the stage a little bit because my foot hurts tremendously,” he said. “With that said, I’m playing a full set, and I feel that I’m reaching the level where I should be. I take the pain and I deal with it.”
“My son Marcus stepped in and did half a Scorpions show in Mexico City, because we had to do this one-off show and my foot was not ready for a full show,” Dee explained. “I played six songs and he went up and did seven songs, and I did the two encores. It was brilliant… He actually saved my a** there.”
Dee expressed pride in his son’s ability to handle the pressure of playing for 100,000 people, noting that Marcus has been a natural since childhood.
“He’s an amazing drummer, I know that. He jammed with Motörhead when he was seven years old… I showed Steve Lukather that one time, and he said, ‘Man, that guy’s got the whack.’”
Mikkey Dee officially joined the Scorpions in 2016 following the tragic passing of Lemmy and the subsequent dissolution of Motörhead. Since taking over behind the kit, he has recorded one studio album with the group, 2022’s Rock Believer. Following his lengthy medical recovery, the band’s postponed Las Vegas residency successfully took place in August 2025.
