Leslie West: stoic in the face of disaster

"I don't think there is another attitude," West tells Billboard.com from the New Jersey rehabilitation facility where he's being taught how to live without the leg after it was removed just above the knee on June 20 in Memphis, due to complications from diabetes. "I cried a couple fuckin' times. I look down — 'Where is it?!' You still feel the nerves and stuff like that. I had to make a decision — lose my leg or lose my life. What are you gonna do?

"But I'll tell you," the guitarist adds, "it's a good thing it wasn't one of my arms. Then I'd be really fucked." more