Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood has opened up about his secret battle with lung cancer.
In May (17), it was reported that the 70-year-old rocker had undergone surgery to fix a lesion on his lung but the official statement did not allude to the fact that it was cancerous.
But in a new interview with the Mail On Sunday’s Event magazine, Ronnie shared that he chose not to tell anyone about his health issues, apart from his wife Sally, because he didn’t want to burden others with the news.
“I’ve had a fight with a touch of lung cancer,” he confessed. “There was a week when everything hung in the balance and it could have been curtains, time to say goodbye.”
Before his twins Gracie and Alice were born last summer (16), Ronnie quit smoking after 50 years. However, during a routine checkup, the band’s doctor was concerned and asked if he could take a closer look at his heart, lungs, and blood.
“And then he came back with the news that I had this supernova burning away on my left lung,” Ronnie revealed of his diagnosis.
“And to be totally honest, I wasn’t surprised. He asked me what I wanted to do and I said: ‘Just get it out of me.'”
At that point, the star decided he wouldn’t have chemotherapy if the cancer had spread, fearing he’d lose his trademark hair.
“I wasn’t going to use that bayonet in my body,” he sighed. “It’s more I wasn’t going to lose my hair. This hair wasn’t going anywhere. A week later they came back with the news that it hadn’t spread and I said, ‘Let’s get it out now.'”
Ronnie added that after he received the all clear, he decided “someone up there must like me”.
No upcoming Rolling Stones dates have been affected by Ronnie’s illness – Mick Jagger and the band have a string of European dates lined up for later this year.