Poison Drummer Reveals Cancer Diagnosis [VIDEO]

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett has revealed that he is is battling oral cancer.

Rockett first began treatment this summer, after a bout with the flu and a sore throat in July. Doctors scoped Rockett, whose real name is Richard Alan Ream, to determine the cause of his aliments, but kept coming up negative. Finally a biopsy led to the diagnosis of oral cancer, with a tumor being found at the base of the drummer's tongue and two adjacent lymph nodes. Rockett compared his cancer to that of Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson and to that of actor Michael Douglas.

While appearing on Sirius/XM's Eddie Trunk Live on Monday, Rockett disclosed that he has been through nine rounds of chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiation treatments. Rockett also told Trunk that he had been keeping the diagnosis a secret to keep it out of the media because, because amongst other reasons, he didn't want people coming up to him telling them their horror stories about cancer.

Rockett is currently scheduled to rejoin the other three original members of Poison, singer Bret Michaels, bass player Bobby Dall and guitarist CeCe DeVille on a 30th anniversary tour in 2016.