Ronnie McDowell says the stroke he suffered onstage earlier this summer could have easily been fatal.

McDowell was in the middle of a set at Oley, Pa.'s Summer Solstice Music Festival when he started slurring his words and forgetting lyrics. His son and tour manager, Ronnie McDowell, Jr., paused the show to ask if he was feeling all right.

"And I said, 'No, I think I'm having a stroke,'" McDowell remembers in a new interview with Taste of Country.

He was rushed to a Pennsylvania hospital, where the stroke was confirmed.

How Serious Was Ronnie McDowell's Stroke?

McDowell knew he would need surgery to address the blockage that caused his stroke. But after that original hospital visit in Pennsylvania, doctors told him it would be okay for him to go home and arrange for surgery there,

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