Feeling good - rock legend Wilko Johnson beats cancer to make his Belladrum debut
OF all the acts appearing at Belladrum this year, few are likely to be happier to be there than Wilko Johnson.
But after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, the founder-member of Essex music legends Dr Feelgood is happy to be anyway.
"It’s pretty good actually just to be here, so wherever I go, it’s quite good to be these days," he said.
Johnson, who is regarded as a key influence on the UK punk scene, was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer in January 2013 and given just under a year to live.
Deciding against chemotherapy, Johnson instead embarked on what he assumed would be his farewell tour and recorded what he thought would be his final album with Roger Daltrey, lead vocalist with The Who.
However, a second diagnosis at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge suggested that his cancer was less virulent than originally thought and could be treated with surgery.
"It’s an incredible thing. Just over a year I spent expecting to die" the veteran singer and guitarist said.
"This tumour was so big, it was the size of a melon – three-and-a-quarter kilos. Then just by coincidences and accidents, I ended up at Addenbrooke’s.
"It really was at the last minute. This thing was going to explode and I was nearly at the end."
Now in good health, Johnson admitted that his reprieve from terminal illness was almost harder to come to terms with than his initial diagnosis.
"It’s kind of harder to take in," he said.
"When they initially told me I was going to die, I was absolutely calm about that. In fact, I had an extraordinary year, so I’m glad it happened.
"That whole year, it was intense. If you are living with the knowledge that your life is ending, man, it really wakes you up to what’s important. It’s an education. I was lucky, I got away with it, but I’ve learned my lesson, I hope. It’s my 69th birthday tomorrow (July 12) and I never expected to see 68, so it’s all been a bonus for me."
His brush with the Grim Reaper has also brought the bonus of renewed interest in Johnson and his 45 year music career.
"There was a lot of public interest and going in front of audiences and knowing you are going to die, you can really milk it! You can’t go wrong!" he chuckled.
His album with Daltrey, Going Back Home, reached number three in the UK album charts, his most successful long player since leaving Dr Feelgood in 1977. It was success he never expected to live to see.
"I was given 10 months to live and we did that album coming into the 11th month, so I was already into extra time," he pointed out.
His life and career also featured in a documentary from director Julien Temple, who had previously explored the early part of Johnson’s career in his film Oil City Confidential, about the Canvey Island music scene.
Screened as part of BBC1’s art series Imagine, it increased mainstream interest in a man long regarded as a cult hero of the UK music scene.
However, Johnson already has a fanbase outside music thanks to hit fantasy series Game of Thrones.
The producers saw Johnson in Oil City Confidential and decided the grim faced guitarist would be perfect for another kind of axeman – Westeros’s royal executioner Ilyn Payne.
"When I’m walking about, people come up and shake my hands, The old ones go ‘Dr Feelgood!’ and the young ones go: ‘Game of Thrones!’
"I’d never been involved in acting before and it turned out to be such a tremendously successful thing. To be involved in that as my first attempt at acting was pretty good. Especially as the character I play has had his tongue cut out, so I didn’t have to learn any lines!
"It’s like being a kid. You have all this groovy armour and all these other people around you. It’s good fun."
If Johnson is an actor almost by accident, then he admits the same could be said of his career as a musician
"It’s a really weird thing to be doing, if you stop to think about it, making this bloody noise," he laughed.
"Myself and Lee Brilleaux decided to start this band for fun and that became my life.
"When we started that band, I never even imagined we would go professional. But there was something about it, that little bit of magic and away it went. You can’t buy something like that. It just happens."
• Wilko Johnson appears on the Garden Stage at Belladrum on Saturday, just before headliners Madness.
