Barry Manilow 'in agony' as he waits for his 'voice to come back'
Veteran crooner Barry Manilow has admitted he's in "agony" as he waits for his "voice to come back" following lung cancer surgery.
Barry Manilow is in "agony" as he waits for his "voice to come back" following lung cancer surgery.
The 82-year-old crooner postponed all of his upcoming concerts so he could undergo an operation to remove a cancerous spot from one of his lungs late last year. He had originally planned to be back on stage in January but his comeback has been rescheduled until later in the year because his recovery has been taking longer than expected - and Barry has admitted he has "no patience" and the waiting is driving him "nuts".
He told The Sunday Times newspaper: "I am still not there yet ... I’m not totally healed. The doctors said that it would take a while, but I have no patience and waiting is agony.
"For my voice to come back, for my breathing to come back. It’s driving me nuts. I tried to sing my show, but I have not been able to make it to the end without getting so winded that I have to stop. I haven’t been able to do 90 minutes yet.
"I am getting closer and the doctors say it will come back, but they say: 'Barry, you’ve been through hell. Ease up!' And I have never heard a doctor say that, so it must have been more difficult than I thought."
Barry is hoping to play a number of shows this year - including a run in the UK - but he admits his touring days may be over.
He told the publication: "By the time we are done with Britain we’ve got a couple more shows, but then that will probably be it for me".
When asked if he still plans to record new music, he added: "It depends. We’ll have to see what happens".
It comes after Barry admitted he thought he was "dying" after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, crediting his quick-thinking doctor with saving his life by ordering a scan as a precaution after hearing about recent bouts of bronchitis.
Barry told PEOPLE magazine: "If he [the doctor] hadn’t done that [ordered the scan], man ... He saved my life, because there’s no symptoms for what I had. "I could go on, nothing hurt - but they found the dot in my lung. They called me and said: 'Could be cancer.' That’s a bad word.
"Not me. F*** you. I can’t have cancer' ...
"They don’t even know how long I had this thing sitting on me. It could have been years. If it had gone any further, then I would be up s*** creek. It just so happened that it hadn’t spread, and boy oh boy, I thought I might be dying."
