Madonna Opens Up About Near-Death Experience in L.A. Concert: ‘God Was Saying, “You Wanna Come With Me?” And I Said, “No!”‘

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic At the opening of a five-night stand at L.A.’s Kia Forum Monday night, Madonna was in the mood to share about the severity of her health emergency last summer, thanking the doctor and other medical personnel who were in the audience who helped her during and after the days she spent in an induced coma.

The singer revealed that it was a well-known physician, Dr. David Agus, who helped guide her through the crisis. He and other members of her support team and immediate family were on hand at the concert and came up for mention during a funny, pointed, seemingly impromptu nine-minute speech she gave late in the show, preceding a version of “Express Yourself” she played solo on an acoustic guitar. “It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control,” she told the audience, of being sidelined by the drastic effects of a bacterial infection that put her into the ICU last June.

God himself made an appearance in the story of what she called an NDE, although she didn’t directly recall a divine presence, only inferred it from what she said after first waking up after being put into a deep sleep to relieve the crisis.

Leading into the story, the singer said, “I have fallen off a lot of horses and broken a lot of bones. I have a titanium hip.