Some things are just too precious to sacrifice, even if it might be a matter of life and death, it seems. It least, that’s the case with Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
Wood spoke to the Daily Mail for an interview published Sunday, revealing that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in May — and that he decided not to undergo chemotherapy, for fear of losing his hair.
“I’ve had a fight with a touch of lung cancer,” Wood said. “There was a week when everything hung in the balance and it could have been curtains — time to say goodbye. You never know what is going to happen.”
Wood, 70, noted that he had an operation to have part of his lung removed. However, he opted not to undergo chemotherapy as part of his treatment, because “I wasn’t going to lose my hair.”
“This hair wasn’t going anywhere. I said, ‘No way,’” the musician said. “And I just kept the faith it would be all right. A week later they came back with the news that it hadn’t spread and I said, ‘Let’s get it out now.’ Just before I closed my eyes for the operation I looked at the doctor and said, ‘Let battle commence.’”
Wood, who quit smoking shortly before the birth of his twin daughters Gracie and Alice last June, said he was prompted to go in for a checkup because he figured that he couldn’t have gotten away with half a century of puffing cancer sticks unscathed.
“‘I had this thought at the back of my mind after I gave up smoking a year ago: ‘How can I have got through 50 years of chain-smoking — and all the rest of my bad habits — without something going on in there?’” the musician said.
The musician says that he’s “OK” now, and in a tweet published Sunday added that he will be hitting the road in September.
“Thank you for all your words of support today ~ I’m feeling great and ready to see you on the road next month,” Wood wrote.
Thank you for all your words of support today ~ I’m feeling great and ready to see you on the road next month ??’?????????????https://t.co/qYMWrGpzpp
— Ronnie Wood (@ronniewood) August 6, 2017