Last November, former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor revealed that he had been diagnosed with incurable stage four metastatic prostate cancer, in a letter read aloud by the band at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Now, Taylor has opened up about his diagnosis in an interview with 5 News, saying that he first noticed symptoms four-and-a-half years ago.
“I was out jogging, and I started to notice what you would think was a kind of arthritic sort of pain, and I never thought more of it than that. I started having these symptoms … and then I noticed on my neck I had what felt like tumours,” he said. “[The consultant] said it was stage four, metastatic – which is a death sentence.”
Taylor said that he had done “a lot of preparation” to rejoin Duran Duran at the Hall of Fame induction, but ultimately didn’t feel that he could perform: “You lose all your testosterone in treatment – just that in itself, I bet most men don’t have a clue.”
Taylor says he felt that, due to his absence, he had to reveal his diagnosis, first to the band and then publicly. “I didn’t have any plan, and then afterwards, the amount of love and support of offers of help … I realised that by talking about it - Duran have quite a large female fanbase, so it’s like, your partner, your boyfriend – give them a nudge, get them a test.”
Although Taylor has said that his cancer has “no cure”, he told 5 News that “there’s some new treatments that can help me,” and that he has been committed to the idea that “I’m gonna live life”. “I’ve made three albums since [my diagnosis], I went on the road with some friends of mine, the band Reef, and played some shows, which were fantastic,” he said. “I often say to people, every minute’s like an hour, every day’s like a week. You really wanna get the most out of life.”
“I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve had so much, in terms of living the dream, but because I do music, I think that’s probably really helped me to live with pessimism of an incurable disease.”
