Poison Drummer Rikki Rockett Has Oral Cancer: Rocker Opens Up About Treatment [VIDEO]

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett revealed he has been battling oral cancer and has finished nine rounds of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation. The 54-year-old rocker is scheduled for a PET scan in February to find out if the treatment was successful.

Rockett opened up about having cancer for the first time publicly when he appeared on Eddie Trunk's SiriusXM satellite radio show.

The musician told the radio host that he began feeling ill with a sore throat and had had a scope and biopsy. He stated that nothing was showing up until a doctor at USC discovered he had oral cancer.

The doctor discovered a tumor at the base of his tongue, which is similar to Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson's cancer.

The drummer admitted being scared when he doctor told him, "It is very treatable, it's very curable, but it is a son of a bitch to treat, and I'm gonna hurt you."

The physician explained, "About fifty percent of my patients wind up hospitalized through the treatments, because you've gotta do chemo and radiation at the same time, or you've gotta do surgery. And sometimes when you do surgery, you still have to do chemo and radiation. So we're gonna try chemo and radiation."

Rockett also mentioned his mother-in-law had been very supportive, although he and his wife recently split.

He stated, "My mother-in-law, which is kind of crazy, because everybody knows I filed for divorce a few months ago, unfortunately. But my wife and I are on good terms, and my mother-in-law actually took me to radiation almost every day. I mean, that was a huge commitment."

Rockett decided to keep the cancer diagnosis quiet at first because he wanted to maintain his privacy.

He explained, "I wanted to see how I would do with [the treatment]. And I didn't want people to maybe come down to USC and [take] spy photos, like TMZ guys or something like that. And I didn't want anybody talking to my family about it or anything like that. It's, like, you wanna forget about it when you can."

Rockett also revealed his tongue cancer diagnosis was caused by HPV, the human papilloma virus.

Poison appeared at the 2013 Indy 500 Miller Lite Carb Day, but have mainly played private gigs.