Wilko Johnson was on the Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show this morning and discussed his incredible recovery from terminal pancreatic cancer.
It was quite an emotional chat, check out the quotes below or click below to hear it direct.
At the beginning of 2013 the Dr. Feelgood guitarist was told he had 10 months to live and was at peace with his diagnosis before setting out to create his final album with The Who’s Roger Daltrey. Johnson said “…when Roger heard I’d got cancer he said “we’ll do that record” and I said “we better do it quick!””
Referring to what he believed was going to be his final year, Johnson said “I had a marvellous year last year, there’s nothing like the imminence of death to make you realise you’re alive…”
Johnson continues “And then right on top of that, the surgeons at Addenbrooke’s decided that they could have a go at this tumour, and they did.”
“I think it took about 10 or 11 hours or something and they took this tumour out of me. This tumour weighed three kilos, that’s the size of a baby. I’d been carrying this thing on stage with me all year, my guitar used to stick out. My guitar used to rock on this tumour. Rocking away like a rocker! So, no, I shouldn’t be here at all.”
Speaking of his recovery he says “It’s hard, steadily my health is recovering. I’m getting my strength and my weight back. The difficult thing now is readjusting mentally…”
