“I had a double-lung transplant on September 18, 2013. I had Pulmonary Fibrosis, an autoimmune disease that kills you when you don’t get enough oxygen to your vital organs. There is no treatment. It is transplant or death. My dad had it and it killed him. I teach Rock’n’Roll history at York university in Toronto, Canada. I was doing film work in Spain and UN field work in Antigua and Jamaica the summer before and could barely breathe. I coached baseball in the rain and that gave me pneumonia and put me over the top, but I kept teaching. I was starting a new course, African American Music and the Quest for Survival, Dignity and Equal Citizenship. I taught a two-hour class and could have gone for three, but when I got home I could not breathe. My wife rushed me to the hospital and they told me I had two hours to live. Everyone said goodbye. They put me on a controversial life support machine called Ecmo that cleans the blood of CO2. It is dangerous, but I was going to die anyway. The statistics aren’t good for survivors, but there is a woman who has survived for 28 years. I am chasing her, but I don’t want to ever beat her. It is always there. I take 31 pills a day, but the pills that are keeping me alive are killing my kidneys.”