![]() But I had to choose between painting and rock'n'roll. Some of his paintings appear in his autobiography. , and he once considered being a painter. You’re not dying.’ So what is there to say? There’s nothing to say.” I mean, there’s no help anyone can bring to me. What oft is thought but ne’er so well express’d. “I’ve got a lot of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton in my head that I can recite to myself at any time.” Does he find any comfort in it? “Not comfort, no. Wilko studied medieval literature at university and briefly taught English. So it’s still there – but you can’t walk around with a soppy grin on your face all the time.” “On the way here today I was in a kind of rapture looking out at this beautiful winter’s day, thinking I’m alive, I’m alive when I’m supposed to have been dead. Wilko says a euphoria overcame him when he got his diagnosis, and it’s a feeling that has stayed with him. I just don’t know how long I’m going to live.” And in fact the first thing that I’ve done with my extra time is I’ve made the album with Roger Daltrey. I was supposed to have been dead in October. “I did think this year would be a tapering-down, but the plan is to just keep going until it hits me. Man in black: Wilko Johnson with Dr Feelgood in 1975. Because it's BC, he is working on an updated version. Now, at the age of 66, Wilko defines the entire period before his diagnosis as BC – before cancer – when he lived his life on different terms. , that is already a bestseller on Amazon, even though it has been available only to preorder. In November Wilko recorded an album with Roger Daltrey, Going Back Home His drummer and manager sit on a sofa, discussing tour dates that reach as far into the future as August. In the small dressing room backstage, Wilko is sitting on a stool with his back to the mirror, dressed in his customary black suit, black shirt and black boots. ![]() I meet him just before he plays a concert in England. The months passed, and he found he had no reason to slow down. Told he had less than a year to live, the renowned guitarist, a founding member of Dr Feelgood, immediately embarked on a farewell tour. ![]() Cheers, Wilko.Wilko Johnson was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in January last year. And his influence? Well, that’s never going to be leaving us. We know it’s only a matter of time before he leaves us, but we can at least be happy that he’s going to be leaving us with this. Nostalgic, but never sad or dejected, ‘Going Back Home’ turns out to be a fun, invigorating testimonial. Perhaps it would have been nice to get some newly written material, but it matters not when these veterans have delivered a fine record such as this. The arrangements are top notch too, the pair backed by an impressive group including a couple of members of The Blockheads, as well as Mick Talbot on organ. While Daltrey’s vocals are powerful and spot on, it’s Johnson who steals the show as he genuinely gets stuck into each riff like it’s the last he’ll ever play, a man giving it his all while he’s still on this planet to dish it out. After ‘Everybody’s Carrying A Gun’ proves impossible not to move to, the raucous ‘All Through The City’ rounds things off with a resonant blast of energy. The tough swagger of ‘Sneaking Suspicion’ couples staccato riffing with the tremendous sound of Daltrey at full throat, while it’s hard not to marvel at that guitar sound on ‘Keep It Out Of Sight’, something only Wilko Johnson could be responsible for. This is apparent from the superb licks he deals out on ‘Keep On Loving You’ and the addictive Feelgood vibes of a brilliantly arranged ‘Some Kind Of Hero’. Johnson’s a man who isn’t going out with a whimper. But despite the circumstances, this album doesn’t deal with sentimentality, it’s a celebration of being alive that’s only concerned with living for the moment.
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