Will.i.am admits it was "magical" seeing his Black Eyed Peas bandmate Taboo back on tour following his testicular cancer battle.
The 44-year-old rapper – who is part of the music trio alongside Taboo and apl.de.ap – has opened up about performing at the 2019 House Festival on Thursday (04.07.19), and the star revealed it was an incredible moment to see the 43-year-old ‘Be Nice’ hitmaker "crowd-surfing" because when he was having chemotherapy to combat his stage two testicular cancer in 2014, he stated that he just wanted to get back on stage with his friends.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at Nordoff Robbins’ O2 Silver Clef Awards 2019 in London on Friday (05.07.19), will.i.am said: "Yesterday we played the Soho House Festival and Taboo was crowd surfing and I just remembered Taboo sitting in the hospital with IV’s and bags under his eyes from going through chemo.
"I remember him saying ‘I just want to go back on stage man’ and to see him being tossed around crowd surfing was just a magical moment like ‘Man we did it bro, we did it!’ It was a magical moment."
And the ‘Where Is The Love’ chart topper insisted that the group like to give back to their communities and provide support where they can, and Taboo – whose real name is Jaime Luis Gomez – joined the American Cancer Society, which is a nationwide voluntary health organisation dedicated to eliminating cancer, following his own battle with the disease to "provide optimism" and support.
He added: "Music changed all of our lives and allowed us to take care of our families and allowed us to go back to the communities that we came from where music was the cavalry that took us out of the ghetto and took us out of the provinces of the world.
"And now with success from music, we’re able to go back to our communities and build stem programmes where we teach kids computer science and robotics.
"We’re able to join the American Cancer Society because Taboo’s a cancer survivor and go out and be that testament where we can provide optimism to folks that are going through it because he’s a first-hand five-year cancer free survivor. We’re honoured that music has changed our lives and the ability to pay it forward."
At the ceremony, which took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, the Black Eyed Peas were honoured with The Raymond Weil Best International Group Award which was presented to them by Liam Payne.
Will.i.am: Being on tour with Black Eyed Peas is magical
