Def Leppard and Last In Line guitarist Vivian Campbell recently revealed that that he never thought he was going to die of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It has been noted that he was diagnosed with the disease in 2013.
Vivian Campbell opens up on the matter
It has been reported that for the past seven years, Vivian has been treated with medication called pembrolizumab, which became FDA approved in early 2017, at City Of Hope — one of the world’s leading cancer research facilities — in Los Angeles.
Campbell, who receives pembrolizumab infusions roughly once a month, spoke about his cancer battle during a recent interview with the “Let There Be Talk” podcast, hosted by rock and roll comedian Dean Delray.
He said:
“Other than that first couple of weeks when you first learn you have cancer, and it’s, like, ‘Oh my God. Life’s over,’ other than that, I’ve kind of learned how to roll with it. And I didn’t give it too much energy. I’ve never really obsessed; I never thought, ‘Woe is me. I have cancer. It’s gonna kill me.’ I never actually thought it’s gonna kill me. I’m stubborn and I’m Irish and I’ve always thought, ‘F**k you, cancer. You’re not gonna get me.'”
He continued:
“So that’s kind of the mindset I have. I never stopped working. I’m very thankful to my bandmates in Leppard that they allowed me to work… A couple of times, it was, like, ‘I don’t know if Viv’s gonna be able to make the show tonight.’ But we got away with it. Because I also take immense pride in my work, and the thought of bringing in someone else to sub for me never sits well with me because I always know that they’ll never do anywhere near as good a job as I’m gonna do because I just have that work ethic and I wanna be perfect. Even though I’m never gonna be, but I wanna go with that mindset and try to attain that.”
“But it’s been good,” he continued. “Because I think that focus to just keep working and not capitulate to the disease and not obsess about it, just kind of push it off to the side and just deal with it as you need to, I think that kind of helped me a lot.”
“Kick” is the first single from Def Leppard’s upcoming album, “Diamond Star Halos”, which will arrive on May 27 via UMe.
