"Every little thing you see, every cold breeze against your face, every brick in the road, you think 'I'm alive, I'm alive' - I hope I can hang onto that. Just walking down the street you really feel alive. "Right now it's just fantastic - it makes you feel alive. He admitted: "I'm still prone to bursting into tears thinking about her, but I've never come anywhere near that thinking about myself. Johnson, who also played with Ian Dury's Blockheads and the Wilko Johnson Band, lost his wife, Irene, to cancer eight years ago. Of course we can't all be threatened with imminent death, but it probably takes that to knock a bit of sense into our heads." "Worrying about the future or regretting the past is just a foolish waste of time. "The things that used to bring me down, or worry me, or annoy me, they don't matter anymore - and that's when you sit thinking 'Wow, why didn't I work this out before? Why didn't I work out before that it's just the moment you're in that matters?' But yet I still retain this marvellous feeling of freedom," he said. "I am a feather for each wind that blows and the wind's blowing me this way now. While admitting saying goodbye to people was hard, Johnson insisted he did not feel down about his condition. I just hope it spares me long enough to do these gigs - then I'll be a happy man." Wilko Johnson - Live Show Dates 2012 Thu Oct 11 Komedia Bath.
"I'm not hoping for a miracle cure or anything. "This position I'm in is so strange, in that I do feel fit and yet I know death is upon me. I'm not going to go on stage looking ill - I don't wanna present a sorry spectacle!
His farewell tour concludes with dates in London, Bilston, Holmfirth and Glasgow in March.īut he admitted: "If the cancer kicks in before that, then I can't go on stage. Johnson is due to play four dates in France at the beginning of February, followed by three successive nights at the Greystones pub in Sheffield. "I just wanna know how long I'm gonna feel like this, which is absolutely fine," he said. Johnson explained he was given nine or 10 months to live and refused chemotherapy when it was clear it might only add another two months to his life. I've spent most of my life moping in depressions and things, but this has all lifted." You're looking at the trees and the sky and everything and it's just 'whoah'. Footage taken from Wilko Johsons farewell tour at the Glasgow gig. You're walking along and suddenly you're vividly alive. "We walked out of there and I felt an elation of spirit. "When I went in for the diagnosis and the doctor told me 'You've got cancer' it was quite plain it was an inoperable thing, there was nothing they could do. I treated it by ignoring it and hoping it would go away. He told Front Row's John Wilson: "I noticed the symptoms a few months ago - there was this lump in my stomach. The 65-year-old revealed earlier this month that he was suffering from terminal cancer of the pancreas. The former Dr Feelgood guitarist said the news made him feel "vividly alive" - and lifted the bouts of depression he had previously experienced.īut Johnson told Radio 4's Front Row programme he would cancel his planned farewell gigs if he began to feel sick. Wilko Johnson has spoken of the strange "euphoria" he has experienced since being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Special guest 'Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure John Otway.Wilko Johnson: 'Terminal cancer has made me feel alive' Featuring former Blockhead Dylan Howe on drums, the trio is known as one of the most exciting r’n’b bands in the world today. He, alongside his original Feelgood bandmates, is also widely acknowledged as a forefather of punk on both sides of the Atlantic, fans ranging from Joe Strummer to Blondie.įollowing a stint with Ian Dury & The Blockheads in the 1980s, he formed the Wilko Johnson Band, with Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy. With this electrifying sound, his trademark black-suited, scowling look and his characteristic strut, Wilko became one of the guitar heroes of the 1970s and beyond, not to mention on of rock ’n’ roll’s most extraordinary characters. Wilko is famed for his blistering chop-chord strumming action (the ‘stab’, as he describes it), a technique inspired by his admiration of the late Pirates guitarist Mick Green. Listed Under Music Events / Nights Out Eventsįollowing a remarkable recovery from a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Wilko Johnson the original Dr Feelgood guitarist, actor (Game of Thrones character Ser ilyn Payne) and all round national treasure has enjoyed a rousing return to the live arena, including a number 1 album with Roger Daltrey (Going Back Home), a sold out show at The Royal Albert Hall to mark his 70th birthday and, most recently, the release of Blow Your Mind, his first album of new material in decades.