Jorg michael drummer Stratovarius terdiagnosa kanker

Stratovarius keyboardist Jens
Johansson has posted the
following statement online:
"Dear STRATOVARIUS fans, I am
afraid we have some quite
terrible news. News of the worst
imaginable kind. It's about our
friend and drummer Jörg
Michael.
"Jörg has cancer.
"He recently discovered a lump
on his neck, went to the doctor,
they decided to operate, and
found what they call 'a
malignant thyroid neoplasm.'
They took out his whole thyroid
just to have the best chance to
get everything out. He will also
have to undergo a regimen of
radiotherapy.
"He is a fighter. We have all
talked to him and it's clear that
this guy is not down for the
count. He and his team of
German doctors are pissed off
and ready to kick ass, and I
would not want to be a little
cancer cell on these guys' shit
list.. believe me.
"Jörg and his family (and us guys
in the band) found this out only
last week, after the operation.
Naturally we are all going
between a lot of emotions,
sadness, worry, shock, confusion,
even anger.
"As for STRATOVARIUS, as you
perhaps know, there is a long
tour coming up with
HELLOWEEN, and with the
surgery and therapy that will
now follow there is no way Jörg
can do the first part of the tour.
For me personally, I at first felt
quite hopeless about the tour,
because I was so upset about all
this news. But Jörg himself has
been extremely clear that he
does not want the band to
cancel a single show because of
this. In the end, this is what
made at least me feel better
about going back hitting the
road next week.
"So, we have debated what to
do for many days now. Jörg first
suggested my brother Anders to
do this November-December
2010 leg, but it turns out Anders
will, unfortunately, be busy
recording some record or other
with that little indie cellar band
of his called HAMMERFALL. :o)
"After a lot of searching, we
found a guy that both can do it
and didn't have other
commitments: Alex Landenburg.
He plays well, Jörg says he is a
great guy (very important!) and
he even started learning the set
already before we even had
decided what to do, which to me
shows a lot of dedication. You
can Google Alex's name if you
are curious.
"So it turns out that
STRATOVARIUS will do the first
leg of the HELLOWEEN '7
Sinners' tour, just as planned,
only not with Jörg behind the kit,
but with Jörg very much as a
motivator to us being there. Not
one single date will be cancelled
or changed.
"Jörg wants to be back on the
road with us again as soon as
possible depending on the
thearapy, but we are not making
any promises; that one is up to
powers even higher than Jörg
Michael and his doctors.
"We will try to keep you
somewhat updated.
"Anyway, the most important
thing is that they think they got
all the bad stuff out and that the
end result is that we just fix that
sentence I wrote above. We will
then say: Jörg had cancer. But he
beat it."