American music icon has been hospitalised due to a ‘sudden illness.’
The 76-year-old rocker fell ill in Bologna on Tuesday (December 12), currently touring in Italy.
She was due to perform at the Duse theatre that night but, as reported by, the show was cancelled as she is kept under observation.
In a statement shared with fans, the theatre said: ‘With great regret, we inform the kind audience that Patti Smith’s concert will not be able to go on stage due to a sudden illness that struck the artist.
‘We are all sorry for the inconvenience caused by this news. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery go to the artist.’
Before this, Patti’s last performance was on Saturday evening (December 9) at the Modena Cathedral as part of her eight-date Italian tour.Â
Her next performance is scheduled for the Malibran theatre in Venice on Thursday, December 14.
It remains unclear whether Patti will be well enough to take to the stage.
After this, Patti will be heading to the States for gigs in Chicago and Brooklyn.
Her tour is also due to continue into 2024, with the Chicago-born star playing In Dublin, Ireland next June.
Patti last made headlines in 2022 with her controversial song, Rock n Roll N****r.
The track – previously released alongside the Patti Smith Group’s 1978 album, Easter – was removed by streaming services Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music.
The track features the word eight consecutive times and is used to describe Jimi Hendrix, Jesus Christ ‘and grandma, too’.
Patti previously said in interviews that she used the racial slur in the song ‘as a way of reinventing it, like the kids did with the word punk.’
Speaking in 1996, she said: ‘I was taking this archaic use of the word n****r and sort of reinventing it.
‘It was the idea of taking a word that was specific and hurtful to people and obliterating it, blowing that apart and reinventing it so it was more like a badge of courage.’
Patti initially received notability for the tune when it was released as she described Sir Mick Jagger with the N-word.
Defending the decision, Patti said at the time: ‘On our liner notes, I redefined the word n****r as being an artist mutant that was going beyond gender.’
When the interviewer told her that Sir Mick did not suffer ‘like anyone who grew up in Harlem,’ she replied: ‘Suffering don’t make you a n****r.
‘I mean, I grew up poor, too. You think Black people are better than white people or something? I was raised with black people. It’s like, I can walk down the street and say to a kid, “Hey n****r”.’
Reflecting on the comments 20 years later, Patti defended herself.
‘You could have called Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci a n****r – people that created art for the palace but had to come in the back door,’ she said.
‘Beethoven was not allowed to come in through the front door of the palace.’
The track is still available on physical copies of the album, despite not being on streaming platforms.
Reps for Patti Smith have been contacted for comment.
