DevilDriver and Coal Chamber frontman Dez Fafara has publicly disclosed for the first time that he has been living with a brain tumor. He shared the news in an appearance on The Garza Podcast. The revelation comes roughly two years after Coal Chamber canceled a U.S. tour following a blackout and vertigo episode that Fafara experienced.
Fafara opened up about the health scare that first led to his diagnosis, describing how a sudden onset of vertigo disrupted what had been a period of active, healthy living.
“The vertigo thing really f*cking threw me off, dude, ’cause it was a great Saturday afternoon,” he said. “I’d been running miles and miles on the treadmill every day, and all of a sudden I had vertigo out of nowhere, and that took me out for almost a year. They had to do all sorts of MRIs and all sorts of crazy shit to me to figure out what the fuck was going on.”
He then addressed the tumor itself, explaining why he had kept the news private and detailing the medical situation he has been navigating.
“You don’t wanna say this stuff before you book tours or before you’re doing deals or before you’re going out,” he said. “But for, I would say, over a year, maybe almost two years now, we’ve been dealing with a situation where they found a tumor in my head. So, they want me back in every six months. It’s gotta actually grow a little bit to be safe to go in [and operate], ’cause it’s very unsafe.”
“If they go to get it now, I could lose speech and a lot of other stuff,” he continued. “So, yeah, it’s the first time I’ve ever said anything about this, by the way. And so I go in every six months. And because I fast and I do intermediate fasting, and right now I’m on a four-day fast. You never feel better than when you’re just drinking juices and stuff. I feel like I can look through walls.”
Fafara credited his dietary habits and fasting regimen with helping to slow the tumor’s growth. Doctors have also noted a slight reduction in its size.
“And I think that has kept it not growing,” he said. “So the last time I went in, it was a couple of months ago, and then [the doctor] said, ‘Hey, look, it’s actually gotten a little, little bit smaller, which we’ve never seen.’ And I said, ‘Well, part of that is probably prayer, a lot of it.’ And also just eating well and fasting, and I don’t do high carb and I don’t do a ton of sugar, and obviously no alcohol. But that’s what I’ve been dealing with.”
He went on to describe the tumor’s location and the risks associated with operating on it.
“The tumor is in my jawline, a little bit higher, on my saliva gland,” he explained. “And they’re, like, ‘It’s gotta be bigger for us to fuck with this because this could…’ It could affect my blinking, my smiling, my speaking. I’m of the mindset, and this will give you a little power into me here, is that I’m gonna make it go away.”
“I’m personally gonna make it go away with dieting, fasting and positive thought,” he continued. “It’s gonna go away. So the next time I go in is February or March, I think. And it’s gonna shrink more. It’s gonna go away. Period, end of story… I came back out the second or third time [I got an MRI scan done] — I think the third time — and he’s like, ‘This is crazy, but this thing is getting a little bit smaller.’ And I’m, like, ‘Well, have you ever had these go away?’ And he’s, like, ‘No. And I get rid of a lot of these when I can, when it’s okay to operate.'”
“And I go, ‘Well, this thing’s gonna go away,'” he added. “And he’s, like, ‘Uh, okay.’ And I said, ‘You’ll see. This’ll be a new one for your little medical booklet.’ But if you don’t think that way about life… And the crazy thing is when I was going through all this, and in the emergency room and everything else is, that’s when I had parted ways with my longtime [Devildriver] guitar player, and so I still haven’t spoke to him. And I was going through all this at the time too.”
Despite the ongoing health battle, Fafara made clear he has no intention of slowing down his touring schedule.
“I wanted to share that with you because I haven’t shared anything [with anyone],” he said. “I think people need to know. And obviously this is gonna go out on the wire and people are gonna go, ‘F*ck, that’s what he’s dealing with.’ But no, I’m not gonna cancel tours. I’m showing up in Australia [this summer]. I’m showing up in August. Nothing’s gonna stop that.”
Fafara is set to perform with his band in Australia this summer, with further tour dates scheduled for August.
The disclosure adds important context to a health situation that has quietly shaped the past two years of Fafara’s life and career.
The tumor has been confirmed as non-cancerous. Following the initial discovery, Fafara underwent cancer testing and the results came back clear. While the tumor’s benign nature offers some reassurance, its location near the salivary gland in the jawline area makes surgical intervention particularly delicate. Doctors have warned that operating prematurely could affect his ability to blink, smile, and speak.
Doctors discovered the tumor almost two years ago after the vertigo and blackout episode forced Coal Chamber to cancel their U.S. tour and prompted further investigation. Without that health scare, the tumor may have gone undetected for considerably longer. The incident landed Fafara in the emergency room and ultimately led to the MRI scans that uncovered the growth.
The slight shrinkage observed by doctors is being treated as a genuinely unusual development. Physicians told Fafara they had not previously seen a tumor of this type reduce in size without surgical intervention. He has attributed the change to a combination of intermittent fasting, a low-carb and low-sugar diet, abstinence from alcohol, and prayer. He has maintained this regimen consistently throughout the monitoring period.
Fafara’s next scheduled MRI check-in is expected to take place in February or March. At that point, doctors will reassess the tumor’s size and determine whether the trend of reduction has continued. He remains firm in his belief that the tumor will eventually disappear entirely, a position he has held throughout the process despite medical skepticism.
The health battle has unfolded alongside other significant personal and professional upheaval. During the same period in which he was navigating emergency room visits and MRI scans, Fafara also parted ways with a longtime DevilDriver guitarist. That situation remains unresolved, with the two not having spoken since the split. DevilDriver’s new album, Strike and Kill, is set for release on Napalm Records, signaling that Fafara has continued to push forward creatively throughout it all.
