Doctors feared singer George Michael had sustained brain damage after he began speaking with a "vaguely Bristolian accent" while fighting pneumonia last year.
The former Wham! frontman was unconscious for three weeks as he fought for his life at a hospital in Vienna, Austria last November.
When he finally came to, doctors were left baffled after his London twang was seemingly replaced by a brogue from England's West Country.
He tells London radio station LBC, "My doctors were genuinely worried that I had this condition, it's a genuine thing where people wake from comas speaking French or some other language they learned at school.
"Mine was two days of this vaguely Bristolian accent, and they were worried I could have spoken like that for the rest of my life. They were saying, 'Oh my God, he's got brain damage.' Not that there's anything wrong with the West Country accent - but it's a bit weird when you come from North London."
However, Michael admits his "bizarre" accent gave his worried relatives some much-needed comic relief during his health scare.
He adds, "My sisters were so relieved that I had woken up, they were just laughing away at me talking in this weird accent. My doctors were worried, but I was not quite conscious enough to know what I was doing. It was just an unfortunate coincidence. I scared everyone when I woke up because I basically did two days' worth of stand-up comedy based on (sitcom) Nighty Night in this bizarre West Country accent."
Meanwhile, it's 30 years since George Michael, as one half of Wham!, dazzled us with his 80s chic. Here are the boys...