Rick Springfield Discovered He Has Brain Damage From Onstage Fall 25 Years Ago

Rick Springfield recently discovered he’s still suffering from brain damage 25 years after an onstage fall in Las Vegas.

The musician, 75, told PEOPLE in an interview published on March 10 that after undergoing a Prenuvo whole-body MRI scan, he learned that he still had brain damage from the 2000 accident.

“I fell 25 feet, hit my head and then wood came down and hit my head, and then my head hit the stage again,” he recalled. “I thought I had just broken my wrist, but on the scan I found out I have some brain damage from the fall, so I’m working on trying to repair that.”

Springfield said he underwent the scan to get a heads-up about any kind of health issues that might be lurking ahead. “My dad died from not wanting to know,” he told the outlet. “He thought he had stomach cancer for years and never got it checked out. When he finally collapsed one day at home, they found out it was an ulcer that burst, and he died from the loss of blood. It could have been fixed if he had gotten it checked out.”

“That was a giant message to me: If you want to live long, you have to be prepared for some bad news now and then,” he continued. “I could find out I have terminal cancer tomorrow and be dead in a year, but I can only do all I can do.”

Springfield also stays on top of his health by exercising every day and eating a mostly pescatarian diet. He’s also cut back on alcohol after “drinking quite a bit” when he was younger. “I’ll have a couple of sips of vodka or something when I’m onstage, but I don’t drink any other time,” he said.

Decreasing his alcohol consumption has helped the “Jessie’s Girl” artist with his depression, for which he’s also tried ketamine and LSD as treatments.

“I wanted to see if [ketamine would] open a few things in my brain,” he explained. “It was a creative experiment and an experiment on depression. I did it for as long as suggested, and I wasn’t a big fan. It made me feel heavy and machinelike. It didn’t change much in me — although I have been writing a lot, so you never know what kind of effect it has later on. It’s not a black-and-white kind of thing.”

He’s more interested in mico-dosing instead. “I did acid, and that was actually a little better,” he said. “I hadn’t done that since I was in my 20s, but it was a great high. I don’t mean to push drugs on anyone, but I’m not averse to anything that helps me be happier and a better person. I could use some help in that area. I’m always searching.”