Poison drummer Rikki Rockett recorded messages for his kids as cancer threatened to take his tongue

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett recorded messages for his young children while facing the possibility that surgery for his throat cancer could remove his tongue. He wanted them to remember his voice and hear his advice, as he feared he might not survive much longer.

Diagnosed with HPV-related cancer at the base of his tongue in 2015, Rockett underwent three months of radiation and chemotherapy, but the disease did not respond and he said it reached stage four. He recalled losing the ability to eat and dropping to 161 pounds; an experimental combination of pembrolizumab and epacadostat at UC San Diego then worked, and he was declared cancer-free in July 2016. Now 65, he says he has been free of cancer for a decade, and his memoir recounts the illness and his career.