Hey guys, long time member. Haven’t been on in awhile.
As some of you may know I play in a Ozzy Osbourne tribute band based out of Houston, TX named Ozz and post videos every now and then. I’ve had the privilege to meet Zakk Wylde a few times at VIP meet and greets and he actually follows our Instagram page and comments on our content every so often. Huge honor for us.
About six months ago I played a show and just didn’t feel right before during and after the show. I went and got checked out the next day and they discovered a tumor in my left lung and was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer soon after. Completely turned my life upside down. I’ve been going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments since then. Had some issues last week and had to go to the hospital for a few days. I guess Zakk saw a post on our Instagram that I was in the hospital and messaged our page to get my contact info. Sure enough he text me. He hoped I was feeling better and sent prayers and strength and asked for my mailing address to send a Black Label care package.
Thankfully, I got home from the hospital last Thursday. Grateful to be home. Zakk’s care package arrived on Tuesday of this week, the day after my 50th birthday and I was blown away. I was thinking he sent I copy of the new album and a coffee cup. Man, was I wrong.
Zakk sent the guitar he played during the last Zakk Sabbath tour along with a bunch of packs of strings, a bag of his guitar picks and and a handwritten note. It’s the Wylde Audio purple vertigo Barbarian. Below is some video and pics my wife took while I opened it. As you can tell I was in complete shock.
Zakk is the kindest and most big hearted rockstar guitar god I’ve ever heard of. I hear so many stories of his acts of kindness to his fans. He treats them like family.
It definitely was a huge lift to my spirit.
I finished my last radiation treatment Nov. 17th and finished my last chemo treatment 6 weeks ago today. I have no immune system at the moment and I’m basically a energyless ball of flesh
And still recovering from being in the hospital last week from a serious lung infection due to the radiation treatments. And of course I lost my hair along the way while in treatment. Ugh. I’ve had long hair since high school so being bald now is definitely different. Showers are a lot quicker now though.
I’m in the next phase of treatment now which is getting immunotherapy infusions once a month for the next year. They are supposed to help build you back up and teach your immune system to identify and kill cancer cells. But of course this comes with it’s own long list of side effects so you have to see how your body reacts to it. I received my first one on Jan 27th. One down 11 to go. I still have a tumor. It has shrunk since I started treatment last October and I pray it continues to shrink. I’ll get scans every 3 months to monitor it.
I pretty much stopped playing when I was diagnosed. I just didn’t feel like it. But happy to say I’ve gotten that itch back and have been playing a lot over the last week and especially the last few days since Zakk’s gift. It’s definitely made my soul feel so good. But man am I rusty!
At one point I was worried if I’d even make it to see my 50th birthday. But thanks to my doctors and lots of prayers from family and friends to the good lord above I’m still here and will continue fighting everyday. And thanks to the big heart of Zakk he made it a birthday I’ll never forget.
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Love your videos, and looking forward to more down the road! Stay strong strong brother. Very cool of Zakk!
#teambishop
