Donald Glover was forced to cancel the remainder of his Childish Gambino tour in 2024 after being being hospitalized so he could have surgery and take “time out to heal.” At the time, Glover didn’t specify the nature of his ailment, but during his return to the stage at Camp Flog Gnaw on Saturday night, he revealed to fans that he had suffered a stroke.
“I had a really bad pain in my head in Louisiana, and I did the show anyway. I couldn’t really see well, so when we went to Houston, I went to the hospital, and the doctor was like, ‘You had a stroke,’” Glover explained. “And the first thing I thought was like, ‘Oh, here I am still copying Jamie Foxx.’ That’s really like the second thing. The first thing was like, ‘I’m letting everybody down.’”
Glover added that the stroke was actually just one of several health issues he contended with: “I broke my foot, they found a hole in my heart. So I had this surgery, and then I had to have another surgery.”
Related Video
Fortunately, Glover is now healthy enough to perform again: he took the stage at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival on Saturday, and delivered a fan-curated hour-long set of hits.
The ordeal also gave Glover a fresh perspective on life, as he told his fans: “They say everybody has two lives, and the second life starts when you realize you have one. You have one life guys… You should be living your life how you want. If we have to do this again, it can only get better.”
Childish Gambino reveals that he had a stroke and a hole was found in his heart and is why he had to stop his tour pic.twitter.com/YxeQYBWDBA
— Dat (@DatDaDatty) November 23, 2025