KEY POINTS:
New Zealand rocker Jon Stevens, 45, says his life was saved by a health check-up that showed he had heart disease and was about to die.
Stevens - the frontman of '80s Australian band Noiseworks - is already back on stage performing after undergoing a heart procedure on Christmas Eve, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported.
Stevens, the brother of New Zealand Idol judge Frankie Stevens, was told on December 22 that he had heart disease, and he was rushed to hospital.
"I had just got back from the gym and I went for a general check up and (my GP) found an anomaly in my heart. I was running on 20 per cent blood flow ... my arteries were 80 per cent blocked. I was about to die," he said,
Stevens, who had a procedure in which two stents were placed in his heart last month, said he was "fit and healthy' with no obvious symptoms.
"I was tired all the time, but I thought it was because I had been working hard - late nights and early rises," he said.
"I would have been one of those guys who just keeled over and died."
Now performing in Hong Kong ahead of three Adelaide shows this week, Stevens said he felt he had been given a second chance at life.
"(Your health) is not to be taken for granted," he said.
"I feel very lucky."
Stevens spent Christmas Day on the couch with his family, and said that by the fourth day he was jumping out of his skin and wanted to go for a run.
But he had followed medical advice and eased back into his fitness regime: "I have been walking."
- NZPA
