Barry Manilow takes a break from performing after cancer diagnosis: "We pushed too hard"
Despite the cancer discovered in his lungs, Barry Manilow tried to continue performing but was forced to cancel shows at the last minute. Now he is announcing a break from performing for the coming months, and admits: "Maybe we pushed too hard."
After lung cancer was discovered in his body, Barry Manilow is taking a break from performing. The break comes after the 83-year-old singer canceled several dates this month due to technical and vocal problems. The singer, who underwent surgery late last year following the cancer diagnosis, announced on social media that his latest tour in the UK, consisting of 29 shows in 68 days, took a toll on him.
"Hi everyone — Barry here. I want you to be the first to know that we will need to take a short break. We just finished a fantastic summer tour. The shows were fantastic, the audience was fantastic, and I sounded fantastic. But it seems we pushed a little too hard. Now we all need to sit down and shut up. So we will take a break until we return to the Westgate in Las Vegas on October 8."
He is scheduled to take the stage again at the International Theater at the Westgate in Las Vegas on October 8 and continue there on the dates scheduled until the end of December. Last week, Manilow canceled a show in Las Vegas just hours before he was supposed to take the stage. Earlier in August, he also canceled a planned show in Lexington, Kentucky, at the last minute. The postponed shows in Las Vegas are expected to receive new dates next week.
His diagnosis came last November: stage 1 lung cancer, after he went to a doctor because of hip pain. After medical examinations, doctors found what he described in an interview with People in March as a spot on the lung.
"If I hadn't done that, wow... he saved my life, because what I had has no symptoms. I could have kept going, nothing hurt — but they found my spot on the lung. They called me and said, 'It might be cancer.' That's a bad word. 'Not me. Fuck you. It can't be that I have cancer.'"
According to him, even the doctors didn't know how long the tumor had been there: it could have been years. In this case, it didn't spread. Manilow said the crisis made him stop and examine his life, and he thanked his husband and manager, Garry Kief, for helping him keep his spirits up during the difficult time.
"It made me stop and think: did I do what I wanted to do? Did I make people happy? Was I a good friend? All those cheesy things I've read all my life, I started thinking about them too. It really stopped me in my tracks. And to be honest, there were more 'yes's than I ever thought."
In June, in an interview with NPR around the release of his latest album, 'What A Time,' Manilow updated fans on his recovery from the surgery. "They say it takes a year to recover from something like this," he said. "They promised me they were very gentle and didn't damage my vocal cords. But I'm not so sure."
