Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan opens up about his battle with cancer

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan has opened up about his battle with cancer in 2009.
The singer fell ill in the dressing room of a venue in Athens, Greece shortly before the band were due onstage, and he was taken to a hospital where medics revealed he had a bladder tumour. He told Q magazine: “At first they said it’s a stomach virus. But this guy did ultrasound on me. He looked at the screen and said, ‘I can see something’. He got another guy who said, ‘OK, you have a tumour on your bladder. I can operate tomorrow’.”

He added: “Being the old dope fiend I am, I start to negotiate: I’m on the road, an eight-month tour, we’ve got to do this later. My denial was amazing. So this oncologist knelt down beside my bed, looked up at me and said, ‘This is a chance. It hasn’t broken through the wall of your bladder. Do you know how many people get this chance when we see the cancer early like this?'”

A week after undergoing surgery, Gahan revealed that he hit a low point when he spoke to his wife. He added: “I looked into her eyes and said, ‘I’m gonna be OK,’ and she said, ‘But I’m not OK! I’m not OK with you thinking you can just go – go and die on me’. She knew that’s what I meant: ‘If this doesn’t work out, I’ve had a good life, the kids are fine and…’ She wanted me to shut up.”

Source: NME