Former Oasis Drummer Tony McCarroll Suffers Heart Attack

Oasis co-founder Tony McCarroll, who played drums on the Manchester outfit’s debut Definitely Maybe, an album that announced the rockers’ arrival to the big league, is recovering from a heart attack.

The 50-year-old Englishman shared the news from his social accounts, and paid tribute to the National Health Service, the U.K.’s publicly funded healthcare system.

“Wanted to let you know I was admitted to hospital on Thursday after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday night,” he writes. “I’m not quite out of the woods as yet but just want to give a massive big up to our #NHS We are more than fortunate to have such a service! Thank you!.”

McCarroll played a big hand in the rise of a band that was, without question, Britain’s biggest rock act of the ‘90s.

He helped form Oasis with his schoolmates Liam Gallagher, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, and Paul McGuigan before Liam’s older brother Noel came on board.

His work can be heard on the early hits “Live Forever,” “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” and more, as Definitely Maybe went on to hit No. 1 in the U.K., and is now considered by critics a stone-cold classic.

After a falling-out with Noel, he left the band in April 1995, prior to the sophomore album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and was replaced by Alan White, who remained until 2004.

In 2002, McCarroll unsuccessfully sued the band’s lawyers over his firing.

Oasis is no longer an active group due to ongoing friction between the Gallagher brothers.