Feuding? No method. Simon’s choosing up my most cancers invoice: Andy Taylor speaks out

As the headstrong guitarist in one of many greatest pop teams on the earth, Andy Taylor walked out on Duran Duran twice. But their bond stays so sturdy they’ve paid for the most cancers therapy serving to him defy the percentages and return to a pain-free life.

Taylor has been residing with stage 4 prostate most cancers since 2018.

His prognosis is terminal. But the person with a hand in chart smashes equivalent to Rio, Planet Earth and Hungry Like The Wolf has loved outstanding advantages from pioneering non-public therapy in London.

Speaking to the Daily Express, Taylor reveals: “I don’t have any pain. The medicine is working and I’m asymptomatic. I’ve still got a way to go, but I’m pretty free of it all. If I had pain, I’d know about it, but I don’t need the painkillers I used to have to take. My balance is better too.”

The therapy he’s having was developed in Germany and includes the intravenous administration of radioactive chemical substances.

It was pioneered by Christopher Evans, a Welsh scientist and biotech entrepreneur, and isn’t out there on the NHS.

But, as Taylor explains right now, Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon insisted the band helped pay for his care.

The 62-year-old reveals: “Simon called me up one day and said, ‘I want to help you with this. You’ve been off the scene for quite a few years. Let us help.’ That’s what mates are for and I’d do the same for Simon.”

Laughing about rumours that he and Le Bon had feuded since Taylor stop the band in 2006, he jokes: “Simon offering to do that – that’s how much we hate each other.” He and Duran Duran at the moment are serving to to lift funds for most cancers charity CRIS.

Despite the group’s flamboyant picture as they conquered the Nineteen Eighties, Taylor was the band’s quiet man in public. And he stored his most cancers prognosis non-public till he was compelled to go public final November – to elucidate his absence in rejoining Duran Duran once they had been inducted into the celebrated Rock And Roll Hall
Of Fame.

Taylor wrote a shifting letter to his bandmates: Le Bon, bassist John Taylor, keyboard participant Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor. He defined he was too in poor health to journey from his dwelling in Ibiza to the ceremony in Ohio.

He admits: “I was so sad I couldn’t go to the ceremony. I thought, ‘This should be the biggest celebration of our career and I’ve let them down.’ I only told them I was ill three days before as I didn’t admit to myself I couldn’t go until the last possible minute.”

Le Bon learn the letter out on the starry do, thus revealing his former bandmate’s sickness to the world as he tuned in to look at.

“That was so powerful,” says Taylor, wanting upbeat as he speaks with frankness about his situation and his profession. His man-bun bounces with enthusiasm as he talks over Zoom from his lounge.

“While Simon was reading the letter, I looked at John and I was utterly blown away by how he maintained his composure. He’s always been a class act.”

Taylor had begun recording his newest solo album – his final was 1990’s LP of covers, Dangerous – shortly earlier than his prognosis.

Man’s A Wolf To Man, out on Friday, is catchy and imaginative. But it was the return to singing after years as a visitor guitarist and producer, together with for Sir Rod Stewart, that led to Taylor discovering he had most cancers.

He remembers: “I was suddenly unable to reach certain notes. I went to see a throat specialist, who said my voice was 100% OK. Three weeks later, I found lumps on my throat and a test told me I had cancer. I thought, ‘Damn, so that’s what has been messing with my vocals!’”

Further checks revealed the most cancers had unfold from his prostate. Taylor credit his spouse, Tracey, with serving to him keep sturdy since his prognosis. The couple, who’ve 4 youngsters, have been married for 40 years. “When we got together, it was terrible for Tracey to try to keep up with the 22-year-old Andy Taylor,” he says.

“I didn’t see that at the time. Now I’m the 62-year-old Andy Taylor, my wife means more to me than ever. She’s a bloody miracle.”

Feeling that Duran Duran had achieved all a band probably might, Taylor first left in 1985 following Live Aid.

On the day of that monumental charity gig – once they performed the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia – Taylor admits: “I drank white wine and rose until it was coming out of my ears.” He displays: “Duran weren’t in good shape by then. Roger particularly wasn’t in good shape and that day really brought home to me how bad our situation was.”

Andy believes that with extra assist he might have been persuaded to remain, noting: “That’s the point where the music industry should have stepped in to help. I’ll take all the bullets I deserve for leaving the band.

“But all the industry people who’d dined on Duran Duran since the start, when it was time for them to stand up and help us, they weren’t there.”

It was a irritating exit for a musician who grew up in Newcastle and first picked up a guitar aged 9. He says: “Playing guitar to my dad’s Glen Campbell albums was the best decision I ever made in my life.”

Taylor moved to Birmingham after efficiently auditioning for Duran Duran, who had begun to get seen on the native scene even earlier than Le Bon – a Londoner – joined. That was shortly after Andy grew to become the band’s third unrelated Taylor.

Their vibrant look and fanbase of teenage women made Duran Duran the goal of snooty music critics.

But Taylor factors out: “John and Nick were punk fans. In a music scene of synthesiser heaven, we kept an edge. Me being a guitarist meant we could stay a live band, which gave us an edge over a lot of the synth groups.”

Before formally asserting his departure, Andy and John fashioned rock-oriented The Power Station, with singer Robert Palmer, plus Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson of disco pioneers Chic.

The new band loved enormous success within the US however each Taylors grew to become get together animals and The Power Station had been quickly notorious for his or her hedonistic way of life.

Andy confesses: “At the end of a tour, I said to John, ‘We’ve got to stop doing this, or one of us is going to die.’” John received clear in 1994. His outdated pal smiles: “He is on the path of sobriety and I’m on the right side of being a good boy.”

Andy then produced two platinum-selling albums for Sir Rod and labored with rockers Reef, earlier than rejoining Duran Duran in 2002. He stop once more 4 years later, disagreeing along with his bandmates’ determination to work with hip-hop producer Timbaland.

Mostly residing quietly in Ibiza along with his household, Man’s A Wolf To Man helped Taylor regain his creativity. Its title monitor was impressed by Donald Trump – who Duran Duran knew of their heyday.

He reveals: “Trump was this orange man who everyone avoided at red carpet events. When we got our MTV lifetime achievement award, we were one ahead of him on the red carpet. We were saying to each other, ‘Hurry up! Quick, we don’t want him catching up with us.’ Trump was never our class of person.”

Making the brand new album additionally helped him come to phrases along with his most cancers. Taylor causes: “When I’m in dire straits emotionally, music is something so rich and creative. It lifts me psychologically and balances the grim reaper sat on my shoulder. I’ve had small bouts of therapy since my diagnosis, but music has been my main therapy.”

Alongside his personal album, Taylor has additionally had one other reconciliation with Duran Duran. He performs on 10 songs on their new Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre, out on October 27. Taylor’s substitute within the band, American guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, performs on two different tracks.

Of his return, Taylor beams: “We’d always maintained a gentlemanly approach to each other after I left. Verbally, we used to kill each other. The Gallaghers had nothing on us, but we all respected the boundaries and agreed we shouldn’t publicly air any grievances. And when I got to a point of needing the band: man, they were there.

“Having two albums out at this point of my life is bloody marvellous. Having a solo deal at my age is mad anyway, then to have a reconciled Duran album is more than I could have wished for.”

He is open to working with Duran Duran once more, although he doesn’t need to rejoin full-time, noting: “The other four have a defined structure that works for them. In football terms, I’d be coming in like a wild Ronaldo and they’d have to change shape to play me.

“But if there was something that could work for all of us and the fanbase, I’d be up for it.”

Instead, along with his well being showing extra constructive, Taylor is hoping for an emotional return to taking part in reside. He emphasises he needs to be cautious, however says: “I’m really enjoying playing guitar again. I’m taking small steps to get back to the point where I can hang out and play onstage with a band again, without my health feeling compromised in any way. That will take a while, but I’m in really good nick.

“I want to be able to keep up with other musicians without having to say, ‘Whoa, I need a cup of tea.’ If I can do that – that’d be fantastic.”

• Andy Taylor’s new album Man’s A Wolf To Man is launched on Friday on BMG