CELEB | ‘Call Me By Fire’ star James Lee’s hand was severed in 2015

33-year-old James Lee is a former K-pop star who has become more popular after appearing on Call My By Fire. 

Blessed with good looks and impressive musical talent, the strapping Korean-American musician, formerly a member of K-pop rock trio Royal Pirates, gets a lot of screen time on the show because of his friendship with fellow Korean-American contestant Li Cheng Xuan.

In addition to that, Lee’s poor command of Mandarin (as he is not Chinese) lends itself to a lot of jokes.

However, not all has been rosy for the good-looking star. A week ago, Lee, 33 posted a video of himself struggling to play the guitar on the show. “As a former bass player in a band, it’s a huge pity that I can’t play the instrument I’ve played for 13 years again,” he said.

According to 8days.sg, Lee was forced to give up his K-pop career back in 2015 due to a freak accident that left him with a severed hand, but more of this later.

“After the accident, I practised the bass for about a month. I could maybe do 30 seconds, and then I had to stop. My hand was killing me. It’s the first time I am doing it again, and it just brought back memories,” he said.

“It really hurts,” he added.

Lee was meeting a friend at a restaurant in Seoul in 2015. When he opened the door, the door’s steel frame and glass wall fell on him, crushing his left shoulder and slicing his left wrist.

His hand was reattached after five surgeries, but he was told he could not play the bass again. In 2017, Lee left the band after discovering a blood clot in his brain and went back to Los Angeles to focus on physical and mental recovery.

Lee launched his solo career in 2018 and relocated to Beijing, where he is an in-demand producer and songwriter and counts stars like Angelababy as friends. /TISG