Wilko Johnson has found it "tricky" readjusting to life after beating cancer.
The Dr Feelgood guitarist was told he had just months left to live when he was diagnosed with the deadly disease in January 2013, but since being given the all-clear a few weeks ago he admits it has been difficult coming to terms with the fact his end isn’t imminent.
He said: "After a year of believing my fate was settled, coming back is kind of tricky. I’m still trying to adjust to the idea things aren’t going to end. I’ve got to bloody carry on, man!"
Following an operation in April which removed the 7lb 11oz cancerous tumour, which was "the size of a baby", the 67-year-old musician has started worrying about his future again, as it wasn’t something he had to think about when he was ill.
He told The Daily Telegraph newspaper: "When you think you’re going to be dead by Christmas, it gets a whole lot of botheration out of the way. You don’t have to worry about the future because you haven’t got a future. And that’s been given back to me."
Wilko – who has starred in four episodes of HBO fantasy series ‘Game of Thrones’ as mute executioner, Ilyn Payne – is now anxious the stress of life may plunge him into depression, which is something he has suffered with in the past.
He explained: "It’s like waking up from a strange dream and being a little bit baffled. I’m hoping that I will mentally engage with the world again. I’m a miserable so-and-so really, and I have been all my life."
Now that he is on the mend from his scrape with death, the star is hoping to return to the stage, but confessed he is too weak at the moment as he recovers from the surgery that saved him.
He added: "I don’t know if I’ve got the stamina for a whole gig. I could certainly play two or three numbers and then I might fall over and never get up again!"
Wilko Johnson being cancer-free is ‘tricky
