Dr. Feelgood Guitarist Wilko Johnson to Record Final Album With Roger Daltrey
Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson is preparing to record one final album and he's chosen Roger Daltrey as his partner. The Who singer met the 66-year-old at an awards show this month, and they have since worked out the details.
Last spring Johnson began a farewell tour after receiving a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. He performed all but the final two shows in his hometown of Canvey Island, Essex. The London Mirror reports that Johnson has written some new songs since his diagnosis.
They did tell me in January I’d be dead in October," he says, "but I may last into next year. I hope we’ll have something done before I go."
Johnson promises the songs won't be morbid. “The music I want to continue to make, I think, generally should be a laugh not a cry. So there’s not going to be any cancer dirges.”
As a member of the pub rock band Dr. Feelgood in the early-to-mid-70s, Johnson was an influential figure in the British punk movement. He has fronted his own band in 1978, but also spent some time with New Wave act Ian Dury and the Blockheads.
Johnson has a tumor the size of a small football on his pancreas, but has chosen to not undergo chemotherapy. His wife Irene died of cancer, so he knows how hard his death will be on those he's close to.
"When my wife was dying, that was despair," he told the Mirror in August. "I am still in love with her. The most painful thing in my life is that she’s gone."