Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot hospitalized

HAMILTON, Ontario (CNN) -- Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was in intensive care Sunday night after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed illness, hospital officials said.

The 63-year-old singer canceled a scheduled appearance Saturday in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario, north of Toronto, and went to a hospital after complaining of severe abdominal pain, said Rick Haynes, a family friend and bass player in Lightfoot's band.

Lightfoot was flown to McMaster University Medical Centre in Hamilton about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, hospital spokesman Jeff Vallentin said. Doctors operated on him Sunday morning, and he was in stable condition in the intensive-care unit Sunday night, Vallentin said.

The spokesman would not disclose details of Lightfoot's illness.

"The family has asked that no information be given this time," he said.

Lightfoot has won 17 Juno awards, the Canadian music industry's top honor, and received the Governor General's Award for the Performing Arts in 1997.

He hit the U.S. pop charts in 1970 with the song "If You Could Read My Mind." His 1976 ballad about the sinking of a Great Lakes cargo ship, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," reached No.2 on the Billboard charts. Other hits include "Carefree Highway" and "Sundown."