Gun violence is an unfortunate reality in today's world, with hundreds of people being
tragically shot each day. But sometimes, this kind of violence isn't the end of the story.
With that in mind, let's take a look at some famous stars who beat the odds and survived
gunshot wounds.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, 50 Cent recalled surviving being shot nine times
in 2000 when a car pulled up and a gunman exited the vehicle and began blasting. To
this day, no one knows the gunman's identity. He told Oprah:
"It doesn't hurt as much as people imagine it hurts because of your adrenaline and how
the shock of what's actually going on. It hurts after."
The bullets went into his face, his hands, and his legs; in fact, he didn't realize both
his legs had been broken by the gunfire until he pulled up at the hospital and tried to
get out of the car. Later, he spoke about how the experience affected him mentally,
saying:
"Going through that experience, when you get hurt that bad, either your fear consumes you
or you become a bit insensitive."
Admitting he was initially scared his assailants would try and attack him again, he said:
"In the recovery process, I got tired of being afraid. And then the only way that I could
cover those emotions [was] to be a little more aggressive and to be angry about the
situation, opposed to dealing with how I was actually feeling at that point."
In 1994, 12-year-old Dwayne Carter Jr. found a handgun in his mother's New Orleans apartment
and shot himself in the chest. When the story came up during an old interview with MTV News,
Carter — now of course known as Lil Wayne — insisted it was an accident. He said,
"I was full of weed. Trippin', young, playin' with [a gun]. I didn't know that when you
take the clip out the gun, if you cocked it, one [bullet] is already in the chamber. I
didn't know it had been cocked. So I'm just playin' [and shot myself]. That was crazy."
Years later, however, the lyrics for "Let It All Work Out" from his album Tha Carter
V share the truth. He raps:
"I found my mama's pistol where she always hide it / I cry, put it to my head and thought
about it."
The musician's longtime friend Mack Maine told Billboard in 2018 that Lil Wayne opened
up about his suicide attempt in the song because he was finally ready to publicly discuss it.
He said,
"[He's] reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it's like, 'I want to talk about this
because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.'"
In late November 1994, The New York Times reported that rapper Tupac Shakur and two
others were heading to a recording studio in midtown Manhattan when they were accosted
by three men demanding money. In the altercation, Shakur was shot in the hand once, the head
two times, and the groin two times.
Despite what it sounds like, Shakur was lucky. When he was first admitted to the hospital,
his prognosis was uncertain. Friends, fans, and family were relieved when a spokesperson
for Bellevue Hospital Center told the Times that Shakur's injuries were not life-threatening.
Shakur had recovered from these injuries when, in September 1996, he and former Death Row
Records head Suge Knight came to a stop at a traffic light while driving in Las Vegas.
A white Cadillac pulled up, and an armed man began firing at them. Shakur was shot multiple
times, and he died shortly after.
Reggae icon Bob Marley died from cancer in 1981, but he nearly lost his life years earlier
when he was shot by a would-be assassin.
The assassination attempt took place in Marley's home in Kingston, Jamaica in 1976, during
a time of political instability in the Caribbean nation. The attack occurred days before the
Smile Jamaica Concert, a non-political event organized by Marley that was scheduled ahead
of the Jamaican general election.
According to accounts of the shooting, a car pulled into the driveway of Marley's home
while Marley's wife, Rita, was leaving in her own vehicle. The shooters inside the car
opened fire, with a bullet grazing Rita Marley's head. As The New York Times reported, gunmen
then entered the home and began blasting.
In an interview following the shooting, Marley recalled having a vision of being shot a few
nights prior. In that same interview, Marley insisted that while he didn't see who attacked
him, he knew who was responsible. That said, the attack officially remains shrouded in
mystery.
As historian Roger Steffens writes in his oral history of Marley, "So Much Things to
Say," one of the most incredible moments in 20th century music happened two days after
the shooting when Marley performed at Smile Jamaica with a bullet in his arm. Steffens
told Uproxx that the apparent attempt to silence Marley only galvanized his political activism,
giving him a whole new outlook on life and his place in it. According to Steffens,
"He finally came to the conclusion that an eye for an eye just makes everybody blind,
and that violence is not a solution to violence."
In mid-July 2020, TMZ reported that the LAPD had responded to a disturbance call involving
gunshots in the Hollywood Hills. When officers arrived, they pulled over rappers Megan Thee
Stallion and Tory Lanez, with initial reports indicating the former had cut her foot on
broken glass. Lanez was reportedly arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and Megan
was listed in the police report as a "victim." She later confirmed on Instagram:
"I suffered gunshot wounds, as a result of a crime that was committed against me and
done with the intention to physically harm me."
Megan later revealed on Instagram Live that she'd been shot in both feet, adding:
"I had to get surgery to get the bullets taken out [...] I didn't deserve to get shot."
In a subsequent video, she claimed that Lanez was the one who shot her:
"I didn't tell police what happened immediately right there because I didn't want to die."
In his memoir "A Personal Stand," country singer Trace Adkins recalled a time in his
life when he was drinking more than he should have. As a result, he wrote, unpleasant things
happened.
One of these events occurred in 1994 when a heated argument with his then-wife, Julie
Curtis, allegedly led her to point a pistol at him when he refused to leave. He wrote:
"I did the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life. I turned into Captain Redneck. I
decided that I was going to disarm the lady."
Adkins revealed that he came to regret the words he said next, demanding Curtis give
him the gun, quote, "before I take it away from you and beat your brains out with it."
It was then, he wrote, that she allegedly fired a bullet that went through his heart
and both of his lungs before cleaving through the other side of his body. As he lay on the
floor bleeding afterward, he said he recalled thinking:
"If I bleed on this new Berber carpet, she might shoot me again."
While Adkins opted not to press charges and eventually made a full recovery, the marriage
didn't. He and Curtis were divorced that same year.
The Three Stooges became legendary for their ultra-violent brand of slapstick comedy, and
much of the trio's success was due to standout Stooge Curly Howard.
Years before the Three Stooges made getting poked in both eyes almost look fun, Curly
injured himself while cleaning a gun. As AMC recalled, Curly — born Jerome Horwitz — was
just 12 when he accidentally shot himself in the foot while cleaning his rifle. The
biography "Curly: An Illustrated Biography" added more detail, revealing that the bullet
shattered his ankle.
Brother Moe took Curly to a doctor, who recommended breaking the ankle bone and resetting it in
a cast so it could heal properly. The terrified youngster, who'd never been in a hospital
before, ignored that advice and instead opted to let the wound heal on its own. According
to the aforementioned biography, the result was, quote, "a limp for the rest of his life
that would cause him pain if he was on his feet for extended periods of time."
Andy Warhol was at the top of the New York City art scene when, in 1968, he was badly
injured at the hands of Valerie Solanas, a writer and radical feminist. Solanas is said
to have believed Warhol tried to steal one of her plays, so she went to his office with
two firearms. Then, she shot Warhol and gallery owner Mario Amaya. Both survived, but the
bullet pierced several of Warhol's organs, including his lungs and stomach. At one point,
Warhol was even declared dead before he was revived by doctors. He was hospitalized for
two months, yet the injuries were so serious that he was forced to wear a surgical corset
for the remainder of his life. His health never recovered, and he died in 1987 at age
58.
Solanas was arrested and underwent a battery of psychiatric testing that revealed a diagnosis
of paranoid schizophrenia. She pled guilty to assault, and received a three-year sentence.
The incident lives in infamy, and even served as the basis for the 1996 film "I Shot Andy
Warhol".
According to the History site, an entry in Warhol's diary — which was published posthumously
— found Warhol lamenting that:
"I wasn't creative since I was shot, because after that I stopped seeing creepy people."
Peter Fonda was just 10 when he accidentally shot himself with a handgun. According to
a newspaper report from the time, he shot himself in the stomach, with the bullet lodging
in his back. After an operation to remove the bullet, which involved three blood transfusions,
the doctor boasted of the youngster's "amazing comeback," while a hospital spokesperson declared
his condition ended up being not as bad as experts initially feared.
Following Peter's 2019 death at age 79, Page Six referenced a 2000 interview the star gave
to the New York Post about dropping acid with John Lennon and George Harrison in the 1960s.
Harrison was apparently having a bad trip and feared he'd die. Fonda tried to reassure
him by telling Harrison:
"Don't worry George, it's OK. I know what it's like to be dead."
A skeptical Lennon reportedly fired back:
"You know what it's like to be dead? Who put all that s--- in your head? You're making
me feel like I've never been born."
That alleged exchange appeared nearly verbatim in The Beatles' psychedelic classic, "She
Said She Said." As Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1971:
"That's how I wrote 'She Said, She Said' — 'I know what it's like to be dead.' It was a
sad song, an acidy song I suppose."
In June 2019, former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz was visiting his native Dominican Republic
when he was shot while having a drink on the patio of a bar. According to CNN, the bullet
perforated his intestines as it shot through his body before hitting his friend in the
leg.
The suspect arrested in the shooting initially claimed that Ortiz wasn't the intended target;
however, the public didn't buy it because he's an incredibly famous and recognizable
person. Meanwhile, police rounded up more suspects as Ortiz spent weeks recovering in
intensive care. Authorities later determined that the suspect had been telling the truth,
with the shooting of Ortiz allegedly being the result of a botched hit on his pal, Sixto
David Fernández, who was seated at the same table.
In a 2020 interview with ESPN, Ortiz called the two months he spent recovering, quote,
"not fun."
"I wasn't able to eat or drink anything for about six week."
One July afternoon in 1998, rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan was in his Brooklyn
apartment when two men broke in and robbed him. According to the Associated Press, the
assailants took jewelry and then fired a gun. As Rolling Stone reported at the time, the
bullet entered Ol' Dirty's back and exited his body through his arm.
After being shot, ODB — whose real name is Russell Jones — got himself to the emergency
room at St. John's Hospital, where he was treated for superficial wounds. As hospital
spokesperson Lars Larmon told JAMTV:
"He was very lucky that the bullet didn't hit any organs and just grazed the body. It
could have gone anywhere else and he wouldn't be here today."
OBD was advised to stick around so doctors could observe him, but he apparently wasn't
feeling that. Larmon later recalled the rapper's decision to go home only nine hours after
being shot, telling "Rolling Stone,"
"He got out of bed, started getting his things together... walked out the emergency room
door, got into his van and drove off."
Garrett Morris, one of Saturday Night Live's original Not Ready for Primetime Players,
was shot during a botched 1994 holdup attempt. In a 2012 interview for the Archive of American
Television, Morris explained that he was in a coma when he arrived at the hospital, with
the bullet damaging his intestines.
As Morris recalled, had the thieves faced him and asked for money, he would have complied.
Instead, they approached him from behind, which set off his self-defense instincts.
Recounting the incident, Morris has revealed that he was at the time a first-degree black
belt martial artist who was significantly younger than his attacker, and was capable
of turning the tables on his assailants in an unexpected manner. As he described it in
2012,
"When the guy grabbed me and I did what I did, it embarrassed him."
He later recalled how there were numerous people around at the time of the incident,
most of whom seemed to recognize him from his role on TV sitcom "Martin". His assailants,
however, did not.
The situation turned very dangerous very quickly. When Morris turned to kick his attacker, the
assailant aimed his gun and fired.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.