You read that right. As if we all don't have enough to worry about, cancer is always looking for its next victim. Cancer doesn't care if we are in the middle of a crisis. Cancer doesn't care who you are. And during this massive crisis, Rob Halford was diagnosed with prostate cancer and he successfully beat it.
In an interview with Consequence, Halford had this to say. "I had my little cancer battle a year ago, which I got through and that's in remission now, thank God. That happened while we were all locked down, so things happen for a reason as far as time sequence of events. I have nothing but gratitude to be at this point in my life, still doing what I love the most."
In a new chapter of his 2020 memoir Confess, Halford had not discussed his private cancer battle in public. Instead, he detailed them there. He mentions first seeing symptoms in 2017 and after extensive testing, he got his diagnosis. "How did I feel? I felt a combination of shock, horror and, oddly, relief - at least now I know! 'Am I going to die?' It was all I could think of. I know blokes who've died of prostate cancer. 'No, you're not going to die, Rob' said Dr. Ali." He underwent a prostatectomy on 7/5/2020. He also underwent chemo treatments in April and May of this year after more cancer was discovered around the area of his prostate and even underwent an appendectomy after a tumor was found on his appendix.
"It's been a draining year, I can't deny it, but I'm delighted to have come through it. I feel like I've had the most thorough MOT [measurements, observations, tests] that a Metal God can have."
Halford is not alone in his medical scare. Guitarist Richie Faulkner had to spend some time in the hospital after the band's Sept. 26 show at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville. An aorta in his heart ruptured during the band's performance of "Painkiller" and as soon as the song concluded, he was rushed immediately to the hospital. Judas Priest postponed the remainder of their 50th anniversary tour. Faulkner was in surgery for 10 hours and had five parts of his chest replaced with mechanical components. He joked "I'm literally made of metal now. Although I have a recovery road ahead of me, as soon as I'm able to get up and running again, you'll be the first to know and we'll get back out there delivering the goods for you all!"
In a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock about Judas Priest's 50th anniversary tour and the follow up to 2018's Firepower, Halford had this to say. "The clock's always ticking with Priest, and you can't do too many things at the same time, otherwise things get wonky and they don't get the care and attention to detail they deserve. But I have a sense that it's going to be sooner than later. We're not going to make you wait three, four or five years as some of us have done."
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