Cult Musician Dying, But Wilko Johnson Vows To Make The Most Of His Final Days

Cult musician Wilko Johnson is dying, but the rock and roll legend has vowed to make the most of however many days he has left.

Though Johnson labored through obscurity through many years on the British rock scene — in between periods of fame and band turmoil — he has vowed to go out on top, The Associated Press noted. His band Dr. Feelgood is going on a farewell tour to mark the end of Wilko Johnson‘s life.

The 65-year-old musician was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given a diagnosis of a few months left to live.

Johnson said he took it in stride.

”I suddenly found myself in a position where nothing matters anymore,” he said. ”I’m a miserable so-and-so normally… I’d be worrying about the taxman or all the things that we worry about that get in the way of the real things. And suddenly it doesn’t matter. All of that doesn’t matter.

”You walk down the street and you feel intensely alive. You’re ‘Oh, look at that leaf!’ You’re looking around and you think, ‘I’m alive. Ain’t it amazing?’ ”

Dr. Feelgood is seen as one of the most influential British bands, employing a style of R&B rock that would influence punk rock bands of the 1970s.

So while the cult musician is dying, his music is flourishing. Johnson, who has also appeared in documentaries and as an actor in Game of Thrones, has played gigs in Japan and Britain and even went to the studio to record a new album.

”I think there will be an album,” Johnson said. I”t’s going to be rough and ready, because we’ve got about three or four days and we’re just going to go in and to bash it down. We’re not going to twiddle with anything.”

With such a full slate ahead of him, the cult musician said dying isn’t his biggest fear. Johnson told Reuters he’s much more afraid of what happens when he’ll be too sick to get on stage again.