Rock ‘n’ roll icon Tommy James reportedly faltered at the end of his performance at The Showroom at Golden Nugget on Friday night. The leader of the Shondells who made “Mony Mony” a sing-along classic was unable to make it to that show-closing number, halting about an hour into the concert.
Multiple audience members say James stopped singing during “Do Something to Me,” just before “Mony Mony” and the encore of the scheduled 90-minute show. The 77-year-old headliner then began to breathe heavily, stepped back and took a seat in front the drums.
Golden Nugget reps said Saturday that paramedics and Golden Nugget security treated James on-site, and the singer departed in the morning without incident. James’ management said in an e-mail Saturday that the singer is OK and was flying back to his home in New Jersey.
As audience member Bill Freeze posted on Facebook, “We enjoyed the first hour with hits like ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion’ and ‘Hanky Panky’ and then I noticed that Tommy was breathing heavily and that he tried to sit down …” Freeze added James “seemed to go limp and was immediately helped off stage.” James sat on the drum riser until assistance arrived.
Avid Las Vegas music fan John Wilen said, “He never got the end of the main set, which means they just started ‘Do Something To Me,’ and he could not continue.”
Wilen is a regular at GN’s Friday-night concert series, and caught James and the Shondells a year ago in the same venue. “What the audience missed last night was his going into the crowd for his ‘meet and greet.’”
Along with “Mony Mony” at the end of the set, James did not sing “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Mirage” and the reprise of “Mony Mony.” Those were the songs he performed to close his most recent show before Friday, at Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City on Feb. 27.
This is not James’ first medical incident over a career that began in the late-’50s. He collapsed off-stage following a show in Birmingham, Alabama, in March 1970. Multiple accounts describe the incident as a reaction to drug abuse. As part of James lore, the rocker was reportedly pronounced dead. In casino terms, he’s been playing with house money ever since.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
