Poison drummer Rikki Rockett was staring down a terrifying chance as he battled most cancers: Doctors might have to take away his tongue.
After chemotherapy and radiation failed to cease the illness, the rocker started recording messages for his younger kids so they could bear in mind the sound of his voice.
“I was recording pieces of information for my kids so they could watch it, because the next step was to cut my tongue out if they had to,” Rockett (born Richard Allan Ream) instructed Fox News Digital. “And I wanted them to know what I sounded like and my advice to them growing up, and I wanted them to hear it from me. I wanted them to understand what I was, what I thought I was or would become.”
Rockett, whose weight dropped to 161 kilos during remedy, said the chance of shedding his tongue left him fearing he might not survive much longer.
“I would’ve most likely had a feeding tube,” he said. “I don’t think I would’ve lived much longer. It would’ve added another year or two. Some people do make it. Some people get all of that done and live for a long time. But I think a lot of times, with the way it was going with me, I don’t think I would’ve survived, quite honestly.”
Now 65, Rockett says he has been free of most cancers for a decade. His memoir, “Ghost Notes: My Life in Poison,” chronicles his rise to stardom during the decadent ’80s and his grueling well being battle.
From left, C.C. DeVille, Bret Michaels, Rikki Rockett, and Bobby Dall of Poison attend a press convention saying the 2020 Stadium Tour. Getty Images
In 2015, Rockett said he and his household developed sore throats. They were all prescribed antibiotics, but while everyone else recovered, his signs persevered.
Rockett returned to the physician, who examined his nostril and throat with a scope. During the examination, the physician noticed something suspicious.
“I don’t know if it’s cancer, but it’s suspicious, and we got to do a biopsy,” Rockett recalled his physician telling him. “My life changed at that very second.”
According to the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, Rockett was identified with HPV-associated throat most cancers in 2015. The illness affected the base of his tongue.
According to his memoir, Rockett had skilled a sore throat and a swollen lymph node for more than a month. It harm every time he swallowed. After docs identified him with most cancers, he obtained radiation and chemotherapy.
Poison drummer Rikki Rockett performs during a sold-out present at the Pearl live performance theater at the Palms Casino Resort on Friday, Aug. 17, 2007. Getty Images
“Before long, I couldn’t eat solid food anymore,” he wrote. “My weight dropped dramatically because all I could manage was soup, shakes and water. Eventually, I couldn’t eat or drink anything at all.”
Rockett wrote: “I’ve got throat cancer. At its worst, I struggle to swallow even a gulp of water. This morning, my son had to watch tears running down my cheeks as I tried to eat a spoonful of soup. He looked terrified.”
Rockett instructed Fox News Digital that he finally “wound up in stage 4.” For three months, he obtained radiation 5 days a week, alongside with chemotherapy weekly, but he said the remedy failed. Doctors then mentioned eradicating his tongue, according to Rockett.
Rockett was terrified. In his memoir, he wrote that he believed he had only a “40 or 50 percent chance of living.” But he refused to give up.
“Even with all the treatment, it still didn’t work,” he recalled. “So then I got on an experimental drug combination at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, and it worked incredibly well. It’s one of those things where, if it works, it’s amazing. If it doesn’t, you kind of go, ‘Wow, maybe I wasted my time.’ So I had to roll the dice. And I did. And when I rolled it, thankfully, it came out in my favor.”
Rikki Rockett on Day 1 of the 2026 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. Getty Images
According to UC San Diego Health, Rockett participated in a scientific trial involving a mixture of two medicine: pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and epacadostat. Rockett was declared free of throat most cancers in July 2016.
The remedy took a toll. At one level, Rockett’s tongue swelled so much that he feared he might choke. Soon, however, a scan provided hope.
“The crazy thing was that my first PET scan showed that 90 percent of the cancer was already gone,” Rockett wrote. “And by the second PET scan, it was all gone. It was as if the angels had come down and blessed me. I mean, it was unbelievable.”
Rockett wrote that his physician appeared just as stunned by the outcomes but defined that remedy wanted to proceed to cut back the danger of the most cancers returning.
But Rockett’s well being challenges were far from over.
“Some eight months into the process, nothing was coming up, but I was getting high white blood cell counts,” Rockett wrote.
Rikki Rockett ready audio messages for his kids when docs thought of eradicating his tongue during a most cancers battle. Getty Images
“So, they got concerned about that, and to cut a long story short, I wound up with something called CML, chronic myeloid leukemia, and it’s a predisposition thing. It’s a translocation between BCR-ABL, the chromosomes. You’re prone to it if, like me, you have the Philadelphia chromosome. Of course, it absolutely freaked me out. I mean, I just went through one cancer, and now I was facing another one.”
Chronic myeloid leukemia is a kind of blood most cancers usually related with an acquired genetic abnormality identified as the Philadelphia chromosome.
“The hematologist, however, took everything in stride, and when we met, she was super calm,” he wrote. “She told me, ‘You picked the best leukemia you could. It’s very treatable, and sometimes curable.’ Dr. Jaimeson would be my doctor for the very long foreseeable future, and I was blessed to have her.”
“So, all that happened was that she put me on new medication, which I’m still on. It has some nasty side effects, but the best side effect is that CML has been 100 percent in remission! Zero detection for a number of years now! There must be a reason why I’m still here, I think to this day.”
Rock band Poison, from left, C.C. Deville, Bret Michaels, Bobby Dall and Rikki Rockett, at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 11, 1987. AP
Looking back, Rockett instructed Fox News Digital his medical workforce “actually saved my life.”
Rockett still lives with the lasting results of his remedy. But a decade after his throat most cancers battle, he’s centered less on what the illness took from him and more on what he lived to see — his kids rising up.
“Sometimes my voice gets rough, or I get dry,” he said. “I get very dry because my salivary glands got toasted with the radiation. But I’m cancer-free, and I’ve been cancer free for 10 years.”
Rockett has no plans to sluggish down. He’s been holding busy performing with his band, Rockett Mafia.
“I’m not out of gas yet,” he said with a smile. “I still got stuff to do. And I love playing because I want my kids to see me, and they have. They’ve been to some Poison concerts. I wanted them to see me, and they did. I got that wish.”
For Rockett, beating most cancers meant getting the time he once feared he wouldn’t have. And he’s not losing a single second, he insisted.
“A big part of it was fighting for my kids,” he mirrored. “There’s no question that was a big chunk of my fight.”
Source hyperlink
