British rocker Morrissey revealed Tuesday that he has undergone four cancer treatments, an announcement that followed several recent tour cancellations due to his poor health.
In what almost sounded like song lyrics, the former Smiths singer told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in an e-mail interview that “I have had four cancer-scrapings, but so what. If I die, I die. If I don’t, then I don’t. As I sit here today, I feel very well.”
Morrissey, who kicked off his latest European tour in Portugal Monday, added that while he has been affected by his illness, he promises to work hard nonetheless.
“I know I look quite bad on recent photographs,” Morrissey wrote to El Mundo, “but I am afraid this is what illness does to the overall countenance. I will save relaxation for when I’m dead.”
Morrissey has not identified the form of his cancer, but his poor health has been widely known after he cancelled several U.S. concerts last year and was hospitalized for a respiratory infection in June, according to BBC. He has previously struggled with pneumonia, anemia and a throat condition called Barrett’s esophagus.
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