My brother discovered a tumor in his lower abdomen a few months ago. We had it checked out, and last week he underwent surgery to remove it. Last Friday they ran a C.T. scan to check his body. Yesterday morning, he was told the tumor was malignant, and the C.T. scan revealed what looked like "enlarged lymph nodes" on the back wall of his stomach, and several small spots on his lungs.
This changes everything about life.
So now, my brother's really looking at guitarplaying, and songwriting, and music in general a little differently. He sat down with us all, and told us this will not end our band. It will postpone it. Cuz he refuses to die for some damned disease.
Well... we're really looking differently at material possessions. And what he does, and how healthy he lives his life. No booze, no smoky environments, no spray paints, no anythings. Which also means, a drastic cutdown on the number of concerts he attends. Cuz once he starts whatever treatments he'll need to kick this cancer's ass, he'll get his ass kicked too.
But I'm going to make fuckin sure he gets to see Manticora live. REGARDLESS.
He's drooled over these guys like when he first discovered Iced Earth and before that MetallicA and Randy Rhoads. So fuck me if I'll let cancer keep him from coming to the greatest music festival in America.
I think this year, we'll just make plans to have our whole band come to the show this year. My lead guitarist knows there's some fantastic bands there, he just never got a chance to hear much of them. Well... besides what my drummer and I force feed his ears in between Dream Theater albums... so I'll give him a copy of a disc from each of this year's bands, and he'll most likely want to see this show.
Glenn... it's kinda scary to even mention it, but I hope you got a wheelchair section there. I certainly don't think it'll come that far, but hey, chemotherapy and radiation treatments affect different people differently. I certainly hope he's a strong enough guy to take this. He's got a helluva positive attitude to it, but who knows 7 months from now. We don't know.
So folks.... if you got a spare moment this weekend, play something really loud and really fast for him. We've got a long battle ahead of ourselves now.
This changes everything about life.
So now, my brother's really looking at guitarplaying, and songwriting, and music in general a little differently. He sat down with us all, and told us this will not end our band. It will postpone it. Cuz he refuses to die for some damned disease.
Well... we're really looking differently at material possessions. And what he does, and how healthy he lives his life. No booze, no smoky environments, no spray paints, no anythings. Which also means, a drastic cutdown on the number of concerts he attends. Cuz once he starts whatever treatments he'll need to kick this cancer's ass, he'll get his ass kicked too.
But I'm going to make fuckin sure he gets to see Manticora live. REGARDLESS.
He's drooled over these guys like when he first discovered Iced Earth and before that MetallicA and Randy Rhoads. So fuck me if I'll let cancer keep him from coming to the greatest music festival in America.
I think this year, we'll just make plans to have our whole band come to the show this year. My lead guitarist knows there's some fantastic bands there, he just never got a chance to hear much of them. Well... besides what my drummer and I force feed his ears in between Dream Theater albums... so I'll give him a copy of a disc from each of this year's bands, and he'll most likely want to see this show.
Glenn... it's kinda scary to even mention it, but I hope you got a wheelchair section there. I certainly don't think it'll come that far, but hey, chemotherapy and radiation treatments affect different people differently. I certainly hope he's a strong enough guy to take this. He's got a helluva positive attitude to it, but who knows 7 months from now. We don't know.
So folks.... if you got a spare moment this weekend, play something really loud and really fast for him. We've got a long battle ahead of ourselves now.
