Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell seeks treatment for cancer

Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell is again seeking treatment for cancer. Despite going into remission last autumn, the guitarist’s Hodgkin’s lymphoma “seems to be, kind of, coming back again”, according to a recent interview. “I’m not concerned about it,” Campbell told Florida radio station 98.7 the Gater). “I mean, it always was a little bit touch-and-go. But, you know, it’s just a process to get through … It’s [just] something I need to start the process [for]. I need to get a handle on [it], so that I am free and clear to tour this summer. So, all good. You know what I mean?”

Campbell announced his initial diagnosis in June 2013. “If you’re going to have a cancer, Hodgie’s is the one to have,” he joked at the time. The hard rocker continued touring and recording while undergoing chemotherapy, finding “gaps in the schedule”. “I don’t feel like laying at home in bed!” he explained to the Huffington Post. “Chemo treatment No 6 I did on 18 June, and then the next day I flew to France to join the band. And then I [flew] back to LA on 7 July for my seventh treatment, and I [left] for Canada the day after that.”

In November, he revealed that after a new series of tests, he was “officially in remission” from the cancer. “That’s the good news,” he wrote. “The bad news is: I no longer have an excuse to not go to the gym.”

Despite his cancer’s relapse, Campbell is again refusing to curtail Def Leppard’s plans. They are recording their new full-length in three instalments, and although Campbell will not be part of the process as he receives medical treatment, the 51-year-old plans to be back in November “to finish up the record”. The band hopes to release the new album, their first since 2008, in “early spring 2015”.

Source: The Guardian