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Former Red Wiggle Murray Cook forced to undergo major surgery
Original Red Wiggle Murray Cook has revealed he was recently forced to undergo major surgery.
The 60-year-old was in hospital earlier this month for the operation which saw doctors replace a faulty aortic valve.
"They cut your chest open, they stop your heart, they deflate your lungs so you’re on a machine to pump blood around your body," he told 7NEWS.
Murray realised something wasn't quite right when he was finding it difficult to breathe while swimming.
"I noticed I couldn’t’ swim as far without getting breathless, I was swimming just four laps and I’d have to have a five minute break and that just seemed wrong," he said.
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It comes just 11 months after his fellow former Wiggle Greg Page collapsed and went into cardiac arrest while on stage at an over 18s bushfire relief concert.
The former Yellow Wiggle was then forced to undergo surgery for a coronary occlusion, which is a blockage of the major blood vessels to the heart.
Murray, Greg and other original band members Blue Wiggle Anthony Field and Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt spoke on Today before their performance about what it was like when they first started performing.
Explaining how the band came to be Anthony revealed that the group, who are qualified early childhood teachers and met at Macquarie University, was originally looked upon with 'suspicion'.
“Men singing children's songs, at the time, that was looked upon suspiciously,” he said.
“There’s not many of us male pre-school teachers, especially then,” Murray added.
“It’s actually good because men should be involved with bringing up children,” Anthony pointed out.
The group also revealed that when they first approached an agent they were told in no uncertain terms that the idea was doomed.
"She said, 'There’s four of you, it’ll never work. There’s too many you’ll never make any money'," Greg explained.
The cruel irony is of course, that the group went on to become a multi-million dollar venture, earning over $28 million in 2012, the year Jeff, Greg and Murray called it quits.
The group now consists of new members Emma Watkins, Lachlan Gillespie and Simon Pryce, with Anthony Field still wiggling, 30 years on.
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