Rikki Rockett on Oral Cancer Diagnosis: 'I'm Done with Treatment and Doing Very Well'

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett revealed that he is battling oral cancer

Photo: Mike Windle/FilmMagic

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett has revealed that he’s battling oral cancer – but is finished with treatment and hopes to be in remission this winter.

The rocker, 54, opened up about his diagnosis on SiriusXM s Eddie Trunk Live (via Blabbermouth.net) on Monday and shared that he was diagnosed over the summer.

“[In] June, I kind of got sick. I had this horrible cold, sore-throat thing, and they were scoping me and they were doing biopsies, and nothing was coming up,” he told Trunk.

“Finally a doctor at USC did a biopsy and took a look and he said, ‘I believe you have oral cancer.’ And what it was is a tumor at the base of my tongue.”

He added of his diagnosis: “This is very similar to Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden), very similar to Michael Douglas, similar to Tom Hamilton (of Aerosmith), as far as I know; I don’t know the details of his. And two adjacent lymph nodes that it kind of Normally, it does spread to the lymph nodes; that’s typical. That’s how you find out you have it 90 percent of the time.”

Rockett – né Richard Allan Ream – said that he has done nine rounds of chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiation which his mother-in-law brought him to.

He also revealed that he had been keeping the diagnosis a secret to keep it out of the media because – amongst other reasons – he didn’t want people coming up to him telling them “anybody’s horror stories” about cancer.

“Thank you all for your support. I have received texts, emails, Facebook messages, Instagram messages and Tweets. All positive. Thank you all,” he wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday.

“For now, I will be getting back to my life for awhile as best as I can while I get my taste back and my strength. I’ll know if I’m clear second week of February and I suspect that I will be. I look forward to playing music this Spring and Summer live! I also hope to record as well. But, for moment, it’s my kids and Christmas!”

Rockett adds, “Let me be clear… I am done with treatments. I am recovering and recovering very well. I do not know 100 percent if I am cancer free yet until I get my PET Scan, but all signs so far point to remission. I thank all of you for caring. I wish I could answer all my calls, texts, messages, etc. but I simply can’t or that is all I would do all day and I’m a Daddy first.”