Barry Manilow says the lung cancer surgery he announced in December worked, the disease had not spread and he is back on his feet after a scare that briefly put his shows on hold. The 82-year-old singer also says he plans to keep touring, even though he is still not fully sure how his voice will hold up.
Manilow said the diagnosis was frightening because his mother, Edna, died of lung cancer, but doctors removed the cancer and he did not need chemo or radiation. He said the setback after surgery was worse than he expected: he developed pneumonia, spent one week in intensive care and lost a lot of weight. “I’m back,” he said.
The update comes after a rough stretch that began in December, when Manilow said he was about to undergo surgery and postponed planned live shows. Around the same time, he released a new single, “Once Before I Go,” with a video that showed him saying goodbye to his Las Vegas Westgate resort quarters after eight years of residency there. He said the video was not made to suggest he was ending his career. “That was just an accident,” he said, adding: “Yeah, we didn’t do that on purpose.”
The song itself dates back to the early 80s, when Peter Allen wrote it. Manilow said he felt too young to sing it when he first heard it, but now the lyrics land differently for him. “It’s a beautiful song and it’s got nothing to do with me. It’s saying goodbye to a romance, you know. But it just so happened that it sounds like I’m talking about myself,” he said.
That is part of why the latest health scare carries extra weight for a performer who has spent more than 50 years on stage and has threatened to quit several times over the years. He was on his One Night Live! One Last Time! tour in 2004, had what was billed as a final tour in 2015 and was back in 2024 for another string of performances. Now he says he does not want to cancel again. “I’m not sure my voice feels fine yet, but I don’t want to cancel this tour,” he said. “So, I’m going to do it whether I can sing or not.”
The immediate question is not whether Manilow is finished — he says he is not — but whether the tour can go on in the form he wants after surgery, pneumonia and a week in intensive care. For now, he is betting on being on stage, one way or another.
