Then there’s the imminent UK tour in April and the headline show at The Royal Albert Hall in London in September, to celebrate 30 years of the Wilko Johnson Band and his 70th birthday in July. 25 songs recorded by Wilko between 20, including re-workings of Wilko-penned Dr Feelgood favourites such as “She Does It Right”, “Twenty Yards Behind”, “Sneaking Suspicion” and “Roxette”. Well, first of all, the “peg to hang” our chat on is the release – on 10 th March, of a two CD “Best Of” set, “ Keep It To Myself – The Best Of Wilko Johnson”, on the Chess label. His career is on a high but the man himself is still trying to come terms with the fact he is not dead! Speaking on the ‘phone from his Southend home on the day he was supposed to be back at the Cambridgeshire hospital to have a six monthly scan, he told me he had mixed up the dates and would now go “next week.” In 2017, Wilko is still very much with us, still rocking all over the world and still cancer-free. After a long period of convalesence, he was given the all clear on the cancer diagnosis and doctors are still amazed he is cancer-free.
After surgery Wilko had to be treated for two life threatening tumours on his lung and liver. Radical surgery removed his spleen, pancreas, part of his stomach and part of his small and large intestine. He underwent a nine hour life-saving operation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridgeshire, to remove the seven pound and 11 ounce tumour from Wliko’s pancreas, in April 2014.
A music photographer friend who is also a breast cancer surgeon, Charlie Chan, urged Wilko to seek a second opinion and set him up to see a friend of his, surgeon Emmanuel Huguet, who eventually told him he could save his life A man who refused treatment and resigned himself to his imminent fate, while still performing around the world to say goodbye to his loyal fans.īut a man who was still alive and kicking some 15 months after his diagnosis, astounding doctors. This is the man who was told by medics in late 2012, that he had less than a year to live, diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Looking for a “good angle” in the prep’ for an interview with Wilko Johnson really isn’t necessary. Sometimes this feeling is almost ecstatic, and I can say that I haven't plunged into despair at all.Legendary guitarist Wilko Johnson talks candidly to Music Republic Magazine editor Simon Redley, about cheating death and trying to grasp the fact he is still alive – while making plans for a 30 th anniversary concert and his 70 th birthday. And it's a bloody good feeling being alive. I'm just sitting here in my room, and I love this room, and ain't this nice just sitting here? And I realised: you are alive and you are existing in the moment. And I thought: 'I love being in my room.' Normally, I'd be sitting there thinking: 'My room is very groovy … but I'm really hung up about this.' I'd be worrying away about some rubbish. "I've got my room really nice, and it feels great sitting in there with my things around me. "Normally I suffer from depression, and I thought maybe this was a reaction, but then a few nights later I was sitting in my room upstairs," he said. He told the Guardian last year that the knowledge he had terminal cancer had given him a sense of freedom.
Since his diagnosis, Johnson has continued to tour, and has dates booked through to 15 March around the world.
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