PRETTY MAIDS singer Ronnie Atkins, who is battling stage four cancer, spoke about his condition during a recent interview with “The Bay Ragni Show”. Reflecting on how he was first diagnosed with the disease, Ronnie said: “When I first got it… I knew there was something wrong during the summer of 2019. I had back issues for years, but I had this kind of non-pain, strange pain. It’s something you know yourself if there’s something wrong. My mother had the same thing, and she died of it. I was 22, actually; my mother was 57. So I went to the doctor, and he said, ‘I think you just struck a nerve or something.’ I said, ‘We should check it out.’ And they sent me off. And then, the very same day, they said they found a spot in the lungs. Then I had to go through the whole thing. I had two biopsies, having a needle stuck into my lungs. It was just a very bad experience.”

He continued: “I’d been smoking for 40 years at the time — or 35 years at that time. I actually quit smoking, but I’d been a heavy smoker for years. And I also had my share of alcohol; that’s no secret. And those two things combined is deadly. But I lived a fucking rock and roll life. I don’t regret my life, because I had a great life; I had a great run. And that’s also what some of the songs on my solo albums are all about. We take everything for granted. That’s what life is all about. That’s what we do — when we’re good and we’re healthy — and that’s the way it should be; we shouldn’t walk around thinking about death. So when I finally was told it was cancer, I wasn’t surprised. But then again, I had some panic attacks. It took me a long time to kind of cope with it. But music helped me through it.”

Asked if it’s difficult for him to talk about his cancer battle now, Atkins said: “When I did my ‘One Shot’ solo album in 2020, it’s maybe a little bit more emotional and melancholic and reflecting than my upcoming album ‘Make It Count’ is, but this album is as well ’cause it’s still in my head. But I was kind of weak when I did that album in the summer of 2020. When we did this one. I kind of learned how to cope with it — if you can ever learn to cope with it. You’ve just gotta be realistic and say, ‘Okay, it is what it is.’ I can’t change that. I can just hope that science can prolong my life as much as possible. I do everything I can myself… Well, I don’t. I train every day. I still have a glass of wine and a beer and stuff like that. I don’t smoke anymore, of course. So I hope that with the help of the higher powers and the good doctors and science that I’ll be allowed some more years in life ’cause I’ve got a lot more to offer.

“I’m very realistic about the situation, so I can talk to people,” he explained. “People come and say to me, ‘But you look good.’ I had immunotherapy and that kind of fucked things up in my body, but I was never really sick from the chemo and the radiation and the immunotherapy. Sometimes I was, but basically when I look at a lot of other people with cancer, I’ve been very fortunate. So I basically have been feeling good — as good as I can.”