Musician has broken bones following motorcycle crash; summer tour canceled

Daniel Lanois injured in bike accident

Daniel Lanois the famed Canadian music producer and recording artists was seriously injured in an LA motorcycle accident.

Lanois was forced to cancel an upcoming European tour with his new band Black Dub.

Lanois was riding in the Silverdale area of Los Angeles on Saturday going home from his studio. He suffered serious but not life threatening injuries when his bike swerved to miss a car and left the street.

“Veteran music journalist Larry LeBlanc, a long-time friend of Lanois, spoke to the musician on Lanois’ cellphone Tuesday. The musician said he had many broken bones and indicated he was in pain, but spoke lucidly and did not seem noticeably under heavy sedation.”

“He just said, Look, I got a lot of broken bones,” LeBlanc said. “He’s always an ‘up’ person anyways.”   (Globe and Mail)

Lanois hails from the Gatineau area of Quebec and grew up in Hamilton Ontario where he made a local name for himself recording bands in  a basement studio.

Lanois is known for his layered moody sounds that some call “swamp music.” He produced two albums for Bob Dylan, Time Out of Mind and Oh Mercy. Oh Mercy was Dylan’s comeback album in the late 80s after he found himself drifting musically.

Lanois was an understudy to Brian Eno on the U2 album Joshua Tree. When Eno went into semi-retirement, Lanois took over the job of producing the famous U2 sound.

Lanois’s own albums show traces of his French Canadian roots and southern rock and roll. Black Dub, his new group, is more jazz flavoured and features young chanteuse Trixie Whitley.