Poison drummer Rikki Rockett has described his cancer battle and the possibility of tongue removal surgery, discussing his belief that such an operation would have severely limited his survival prospects. He shared his thoughts in an interview with Fox News.
Rockett explained that doctors considered tongue removal as a potential next step in his treatment. He prepared for the possibility by recording messages for his family members.
“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 said. “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.”
The drummer expressed his view that the surgery would have had severe consequences for his health and survival. “I would’ve most likely had a feeding tube. don’t think I would’ve lived much longer,” he continued. “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.”
Rockett made these comments about his cancer battle and the difficult medical decisions he faced during his treatment.
In 2015, Rockett was diagnosed with oral cancer, a human papillomavirus (HPV)-related squamous cell carcinoma with a tumor at the base of his tongue. After nine rounds of chemotherapy and 37 rounds of radiation therapy, the cancer spread into his lymph nodes, leaving him with a less than 10 percent chance of survival and facing the choice between additional chemotherapy, surgery that would render him speechless, or experimental immunotherapy.
Rockett chose to participate in a clinical trial of the immunotherapy pembrolizumab at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, led by medical oncologist Ezra Cohen. His tumor shrank by more than 90 percent just two months into the trial, and after eighteen weeks of treatment, his cancer was completely gone. The treatment received FDA approval shortly after Rockett’s trial ended, and his trial played a significant role in that approval process.
Rockett has remained cancer-free for a decade following his diagnosis. The radiation treatment has had lasting effects on him, including an inability to sing for extended periods, a longer eating time than most people, and reduced saliva production. He detailed his cancer experience and the broader arc of his life in his memoir “Ghost Notes: My Life in Poison,” a 312-page hardcover published in July 2026 by Rare Bird, which addresses cancer, brushes with death, and a lifelong search for meaning alongside the traditional rock and roll narrative.
