Former The Animals frontman Eric Burdon has hailed his miraculous recovery from a bad back after surgery fixed the problem following years of crippling pain.

The House of the Rising Sun singer had a history of agonising spasms close to his spine and went to great lengths to solve the problem, even travelling to South America for treatment by a witch doctor.

Every remedy he tried failed, so he eventually decided to ignore the warnings of his friends and opt for conventional surgery in California last year (12) - and he was amazed when it worked.

Burdon, 71, tells Mojo magazine, "I don't believe in miracles, but I didn't think I was ever going to be the same. Everybody warned me not to go under the knife. I heard all kinds of horror stories. But I tried everything else. I went to Mexico to see a juju doctor. It was interesting. I saw a different side of Mexico, but it didn't do me any good.

"This (surgery) was a good stop-off point to say, 'Stop riding motorcycles, put them in the garage for good', because if I hadn't had this problem, I would have kept on riding and fallen down, and at my age, you don't heal."