On August 13, 1990, Curtis Mayfield stepped onto an outdoor stage at Wingate Field in Brooklyn as a 54 mph gust of wind swept through the event. The lighting rig over the stage collapsed. A steel bar struck Mayfield on the back of the neck, breaking three vertebrae and leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. He went on to record his final album in 1996 by lying flat on his back in the studio and singing one line at a time between breaths.