Jason Derulo recalled breaking his neck while rehearsing for a show in 2013.
“I was getting ready for my world tour and working with this trainer,” Derulo, 34, explained on the Monday, July 1, episode of Paris Hilton‘s “I Am Paris” podcast. “He was like, ‘Today, we’re going to work on endurance, so I need you to do these back tucks back-to-back.’”
The singer added, “I slipped during one of the back tucks, and I landed on my head, breaking my C-2 vertebrae.”
Derulo “heard a big crack” after he fell, which immediately caused concern. “I was like, ‘Holy s—t, is this it? Is this how it all ends?'” he continued. “All the thoughts you could imagine are going through my head at the time, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘S—t, my mom is in the car waiting for me outside.’ I didn’t want to scare her.”
Derulo told his mom that he only hurt himself “a little bit” and wanted to go to the hospital “just to check it out.”
“The doctor was like, ‘Well, I have some good news and some bad news,'” he recalled. “‘You’re still here with us and can move all your limbs. The bad news is you’re going to be out for seven months.'”
The injury forced the “Slow Low” singer to cancel his Future History tour — a huge disappointment for fans of Derulo’s second studio album of the same name.
Derulo, who called Future History “the biggest tour of my life at that point,” said he was “instantly heartbroken.”
“I had to let all these people down,” he said. “People save their hard-earned money, and they want to be a part of this experience, and all of a sudden, all of that s—t was down the drain.”
He continued: “I went from having all the reins in my life and being in control of my life to not having any kind of control at all, not being able to tie my shoes, not being able to take a shower of myself.”
Derulo noted that the aftermath of his injury “was the first time in my life where I felt like I had no control,” adding, “I woke up in the morning, I went to the gym and walked for about 45 minutes every day.”
Throughout his recovery, Derulo “spent hours and hours in the studio” to write Talk Dirty, which became the “most successful album” of his career.
“It’s because I created a routine,” he explained. “It’s like a common thing in my life. When I’m able to follow a routine, amazing things happen.”
Years after the accident, Derulo went on to welcome son Jason King with girlfriend Jena Frumes in 2021.
