Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has revealed he’s been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Formed in 1972 the Australian rock band, which was fronted by Peter Garrett, has sold over 20 million albums worldwide.
They are best known for songs including Power and the Passion, Beds Are Burning and Blue Sky Mine, also becoming known for its political activism, particularly regarding anti-nuclear, environmentalist and indigenous causes.
In 2022 they released another album and went on what they said would be their final tour.
Now, a few years on, Rob, 69,has shared he’s been living with cancer for two years.
‘So, it’s ongoing,’ he said.
‘I’ve had pretty much every treatment known to man – every scan, ultrasound, MRI. I’ve kind of had “the works”.’
Speaking to The Australian Rob said it was diagnosed ‘early, with the tumour being caught while at stage three.
Soon after he underwent months of chemotherapy before an unsuccessful eight-hour surgery to attempt the removal of the tumour.
Since then, he has continued with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
After initially deciding to keep his diagnosis a secret, Rob chose to go public to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer.
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He explained that it ‘hasn’t really attracted the attention, for example, of skin cancers or breast cancers or others’.
Speaking to the publication, he said he’s been unable to play the drums as he ‘hasn’t got the breath power’ anymore.
After releasing 11 albums, in 2002 Midnight Oil split in 2022, but went on to be inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame in 2006 and then reformed in 2016.
Following their comeback the released a further two albums – The Makarrata Project in 2020 and Resist in 2022.
However, that year the band’s longtime bassist Bones Hillman also died from cancer aged 62.
Speaking to The Australian soon after, Rob spoke about how Hillman had kept his diagnosis a secret from his bandmates.
‘Without going into the details, we think that Bonesy knew something was wrong a long time ago, but being the amazing, independent Kiwi that he is, he didn’t want to burden that with anyone else,’ he said.
‘And his capacity throughout life to live an authentic life remained right until the end. And that’s why it appears to people that it happened really quickly, but in actual fact, I think Bonesy knew a lot longer, but didn’t burden even his nearest and dearest with it.
‘Near the end, we knew that something was wrong. But we think he might have known for a lot longer.’
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