Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Source: Blabbermouth.net

DEF LEPPARD and LAST IN LINE guitarist Vivian Campbell, who revealed earlier in the month that he is currently undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, debuted his new look when DEF LEPPARD kicked off its short run of summer festival dates this past Friday, June 21 at Hellfest in Clisson, France. You can see fan-filmed video footage of the performance below.

During a June 14 interviewed on Eddie Trunk‘s “Friday Night Rocks” radio show on New York’s Q104.3 FM, Vivian stated about his cancer battle: “I have Hodgkin’s lymphoma; it’s a kind of blood cancer. And what alerted me to the fact that something was amiss was, pretty much exactly a year ago, we were in rehearsals for the DEF LEPPARD summer tour and I developed this cough and it just wouldn’t go away. Some days it was more pleasant than others, but for the most part, I was coughing 24/7, and I just went to a few doctors and they couldn’t diagnose what was going on until they actually had a look at my chest and realized that I had enlarged lymph nodes. So I got my diagnosis, actually, just before we started, when we were in rehearsal for the Vegas shows this past March and April. And as soon as those shows were finished, I started my chemotherapy treatment, so I’m just over two months into the chemo and is going remarkably well. I’ve got to say I feel so much better, actually, since the first chemo treatment. I stopped coughing and I definitely feel like I have a lot more energy as a result of that. So obviously, there’s a lot of side effects from doing chemo, as I’m sure a lot of your listeners know. Which is one thing that’s actually really resonated with me as a result of going public with this is how many other people suffer from cancer of different shapes and forms, you know. It’s, unfortunately, a very prevalent disease.”

He added: “For me, I did kind of want to not go public with it at first, because it is a weird kind of thing. You’ve got to kind of learn to deal with it on your own terms before you can address the rest of the world about it. So, you know, I feel very comfortable going public about it. For the first couple months, I even tried to keep it from my children, because they were still in school and doing exams and stuff and I didn’t want to add to their concerns. But after a while, it’s inevitable that you, you know, something’s going on and you have to kind of come out with it and kind of explain what the situation is. But I’m very comfortable with it. I’m very comfortable with the treatment. I’m very comfortable with how my body is reacting to it. Obviously, it’s done a number on my hair so I’m a bit more Joe Satriani these days. I’m hoping that means I’m going to play even more notes like Joe.”