Poison drummer Rikki Rockett has spoken about his battle with cancer and the difficult possibility that doctors might remove his tongue. He discussed his experience in an interview with Fox News.
Rockett faced a frightening medical situation where tongue removal was a potential next step in his treatment. He explained the steps he took to prepare for this possibility and what it meant to him.
“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.”
He also discussed what he believed would have happened if the surgery had taken place. “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 shared these thoughts about his cancer experience during a period when he faced serious health challenges.
Rockett was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2015 after discovering a small tumor at the base of his tongue caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). For three months, he received radiation five days a week along with chemotherapy weekly, but the treatment failed. After three months, his condition had progressed from stage 3 to stage 4, and doctors offered him surgery to remove his tongue. Rather than accept the surgery, Rockett chose to enter a clinical trial using immunotherapy led by Dr. Ezra Cohen and Dr. Sandip Patel at Moores Cancer Center at UCSD in San Diego.
Nine weeks into the trial, imaging showed a 90 percent reduction in tumors. Rockett was declared free of throat cancer in July 2016. The immunotherapy treatment he participated in received approval shortly after his trial ended, and Rockett believes his response played a significant role in accelerating that approval.
In September 2026, Rockett released his memoir, “Ghost Notes: My Life In Poison,” via Rare Bird Books. The book is described as brutally honest and darkly funny, offering a revealing look at Rockett’s life in and beyond the band with never-before-told stories from the highs, lows, and excess of rock stardom.
