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Blake, Wm. When the Morning Stars Sang Together. 1805.

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A Florida man was instructed by doctors to play several songs on his guitar while undergoing surgery to take a tumor out of the right side of his frontal lobe.

The procedure, an awake craniotomy, required Christian Nolen to be conscious to ensure his motor skills were not impaired. He played songs by the Deftones and System of a Down during the surgery.

Fortunately, the tumor was completely removed. Nolan reflected: “It was just like out of this world, like, to just like wake up and like have people actively working inside of your head. It’s kind of an insane feeling. I had lost feeling in my whole left side. From the waist up, like, I wasn’t able to move my arm, my face began to drag. I’d only really heard of procedures of that nature being done in shows and movies. I felt like it was such a unique experience that I couldn’t pass up—especially with my motor skills being on the line.”

Dr. Ricardo Komotar: “When a tumor is involving or near a critical part of the brain—something that controls the ability to speak or understand language or move—we want to do the surgery awake to continually monitor the patient, so you know if you start to violate normal brain functions.”