by Country star Raul Malo, known for being the frontman of the band The Mavericks, has announced that he has been forced to cancel all his upcoming concerts after his cancer diagnosis has “taken a turn”.
The musician revealed the news in a post on his Instagram on September 24th, in which he shared a video of himself playing the guitar along with a lengthy statement in the caption. Malo had previously been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer but had continued to tour in that time; however, he has now developed a condition called leptomeningeal disease (LMD), where cancer cells attack the surrounding areas of the brain and spinal cord.
He said in his statement: “I want to update you all on my health, as things have taken a turn. As it goes with cancer, it’s a very unpredictable and indiscriminatory disease. I’ve developed something called LMD, which stands for ‘get this shit out of my head’,” before going on to explain that he would be starting immediate treatment.
Despite having continued to play shows throughout the course of his illness up until now, Malo and his band have now cancelled all their remaining gigs for the rest of the year in light of the news, as he added: “It’s time to take your words to heart of resting & recovering, so that’s what I’m going to do,” although he noted that he plans for their concert at the Ryman in December to still go ahead in some capacity.
“But I want to let everybody know, I am in no way alone, or scared,” Malo continued. “I have an amazing wife and boys, wonderful family, team, road crew, band, friends and fans. I don’t even have enough words to describe the love and support that I’m getting right now,” before imploring his followers to “find kindness and empathy out there wherever you can.”
Malo signed off his statement with a poignant sentiment by saying: “We don’t know what this will look like a couple months from now, but we are going into it like we have with everything else. Full steam ahead. Fight, recover, rest, repeat.”
He then added: “Humans are alright, even if you don’t believe it from what you see on TV. We will keep you informed as this goes, and I promise, no more bullfighting pictures without context.”
