Def Leppard Guitarist Vivian Campbell’s Cancer Has Returned — And He’s Still Rocking Harder Than Ever
Rock doesn’t stop for anything — not even cancer.Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell, 63, has revealed that his Hodgkin’s lymphoma has returned after a donor stem cell transplant in January 2025 “didn’t stick.” Speaking to El Salvador’s Radio YSKL, Campbell was characteristically honest and defiant:“There’s only been one time that I felt it was gonna kill me. In the winter of 2023… I realized… I had to do a donor transplant. It was my only hope to survive… Unfortunately, it didn’t stick. So the cancer has returned, and I’m continuing treatments to manage it.”He expects he’ll need another transplant in a few years, but right now? No slowing down.Campbell first diagnosed in 2013, has beaten the disease back multiple times. After the 2025 transplant he briefly reached full remission, only for it to return. Yet the man who replaced Steve Clark in Def Leppard in 1992 is still touring with the band, still playing with his side project Last in Line, and — true rocker that he is — even rally-driving because “as a child I thought, ‘If I don’t play guitar for a living, I’m gonna be a race car driver.’”His message to anyone facing the same fight is pure rock attitude: keep moving forward, keep doing what you love. Work and passion, he says, give you something to live for and take the focus off the disease.That’s the spirit that has defined Campbell’s entire career — from Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake to three decades of “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Rock n’ roll isn’t just the music. It’s the refusal to quit.Stay strong, Vivian. The stage is still yours.(For more classic rock news and to stream the vibe on Mendezee Radio, keep it locked right here at mendezee.com.)
Leave a Reply