Posted on 10/13/2019 12:52:51 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Eddie Van Halen has secretly been flying to Germany to receive treatments for throat cancer, TMZ learned Sunday (October 13).
According to the celebrity gossip outlet, the Van Halen legend has been quietly jetting overseas over the past five years to undergo radiation treatment for the disease. As fans know, Van Halen was first diagnosed with cancer of the tongue in 2000. Following an operation to have nearly a third of his tongue removed, he was declared cancer-free in 2002.
Insiders with direct knowledge told TMZ, "some of the cancer cells migrated down to his throat," which required doctors to "scrape them out."
An ongoing theory of how Van Halen developed tongue cancer has had to do with a metal guitar pick he used over 20 years ago. In a 2015 interview with Billboard, the guitarist speculated the pick — which he’d been known to keep in his mouth — was the cause of the disease.
“I used metal picks – they’re brass and copper – which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer,” the "Jump" star told the outlet at the time. “Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that’s filled with electromagnetic energy. So that’s one theory. I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it’s possible.”
As yet, sources told outlet the operations are helping to keep the disease under control. Others close to the rocker also indicated he’s “doing okay.”
What’s in Germany that he can’t get in the US because of FDA
Saw them several times. Once with each singer. Even the last one.
They put on a great show.
Well that was 21 years ago so he might not have been the last singer. I haven’t followed
Maybe it’s because the US is usually LAST of the LAST to approve new meds or treatments.
#### that.
I’d go to Europe too if the sh.t they offered here wasn’t gonna save me and I had the $$
To think he’s going all the way over there because he’s not heart of the best US hospitals is kind of silly :)
THEY may have told him “go to Germany where they’re doing this or that now”
I don’t know where he went exactly for treatment, but I think there’s a place in Heidelberg that is known for its cancer treatment.
He was constantly smoking cigs even when he was playing on stage.
Had a friend who went to Switzerland for treatment of a rare cancer on recommendation of doctors here. The treatment had not been approved in the US.
He and his wife made at least three trips. Alas, the treatments were not successful.
he was a smoker. cancer.
Right. The metal pick.
Not smoking. Not drugs. Not alcohol. Not P#ssy.
Sure.
Lost my band’s bass player to throat cancer a few years ago, and the band’s sound engineer to the same thing a decade before that. It’s a bad road downhill and a most unpleasant one to watch, since when it was diagnosed, it was already too late to save either one.
Cancer sucks.
Eddie spent a good bit of time helping Dweezil Zappa when Frank was sick. Seems like a good dude.
Prayers up
My daughter works at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. This is in the Top 3 cancer centers in the world. I’ve never heard my daughter mention anything about Germany.
I think he has German citizenship as well as American.
He gave Dweezil guitar lessons at the family home.
Eddie is amazing, but alcohol took his hips and cigarettes took his tongue and now his throat.
I was 12 when Van Halen 1 came out in ‘78. I’m a huge fan.
Free For All by Theodore Nugent came our at the same time.
I played a blue burst Kramer headless voyager bass all though middle and high school.
Get well Eddie....Love ya......
I helped a friend make a trip to Germany for cancer treatment when he was told he had three months left with no useful treatments here.
He got to spend another three years watching his kids grow up.
Big bummer. Just was watching the US Festival with them as headliners on YouTube earlier today.
Eddie was so damn great and got caught into that spiral we don’t dig.
Saw the 2007 tour and at the Meadowlands was on the right side of the stage when Eddie appeared on a break and handed a Budweiser up to the crowd.
That person who he handed the beer was me. Split it with a kid not old enough to have seen them when I first saw them in Madison Square Garden.
Damn security guard came after the show when we were taking pics with the can and snatched it. We both started yelling, “Eddie gave it to us.”
He looked stunned as the entire section was already empty with folks exiting. Thankfully, the security guard gave it back (it was empty anyway). The kid asked me if he could keep the souvenir. I could not say no.
Really incredible to see live. What a sound.
Hope Eddie beats this. He really is a pioneer of rock guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwCdjtfrtLI
ROFL. That's how Michael Douglas ended up with throat cancer. Had hours-long marathons of eating the carpet.
That's the way to go though if I get cancer.
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