{"id":73580,"date":"2025-08-17T15:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T15:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/73580\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T15:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T15:55:11","slug":"80s-metal-frontman-reveals-cancer-diagnosis-following-cancelled-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/73580\/","title":{"rendered":"80s Metal Frontman Reveals Cancer Diagnosis Following Cancelled Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Formed in 1975 England, Saxon ushered in the new wave of British heavy metal. Fifty years and eight UK Top 40 albums later, the band still hits the road regularly. Unfortunately, Saxon recently made the difficult decision to cancel 10 shows due to lead vocalist Peter \u201cBiff\u201d Byford <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/ailing-80s-rock-star-announces-immediate-cancellation-of-10-shows-in-need-of-emergency-surgery\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">needing emergency surgery<\/a>.   Now, Byford is opening up on the health issue that continues to impact the band\u2019s touring schedule.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cAbsolutely Rubbish\u201d: Saxon Cancels Shows Due to Biff Byford\u2019s Diagnosis<\/p>\n<p>In a video shared to Saxon\u2019s social media pages Friday (Aug. 15), Biff Byford revealed that he has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DNX4UB4RebS\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">been battling prostate cancer.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The \u201cDenim and Leather\u201d singer has struggled with health issues in the past few years, suffering a heart attack in 2019 that led to triple bypass heart surgery. Five years later, he needed another operation to treat a heart rhythm abnormality.<\/p>\n<p>This time, an MRI revealed a small tumor on Byford\u2019s prostate gland. The frontman, 74, says he successfully underwent emergency surgery on July 8. Unfortunately, he now needs a brief period of chemotherapy treatments, which means Saxon must now cancel more shows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe operation was successful; they got all the cancer out. They just need to make sure there\u2019s none floating around in my bloodstream,\u201d Byford explained.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/saxons-biff-byford-bluntly-opposes-kiss-avatars-i-dont-think-they-should-do-it\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[RELATED: Saxon\u2019s Biff Byford Bluntly Opposes KISS Avatars: \u201cI Don\u2019t Think They Should Do It\u201d]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Saxon must skip a festival appearances scheduled for later this month at Trutnoff Open Air in the Czech Republic. They must also sit out this year\u2019s Neuborn Open Air in Germany, rescheduling that gig for the festival\u2019s 2026 edition.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the Yorkshire rockers will postpone their upcoming tour of Spain and France, with those shows moving to April and May of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe never like canceling shows or postponing shows, it\u2019s absolutely rubbish,\u201d Byford said.<\/p>\n<p>Saxon Eyes November Return to the Road<\/p>\n<p>However, Biff Byford assured Saxon fans that the band\u2019s UK and Ireland tour in November will still proceed as planned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s going to be great, I should be over it by then,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna see you all in November. Keep the faith, and have a fantastic summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And on the upside, Byford said, he can now concentrate on finishing the band\u2019s upcoming 25th album.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the upside of having some free time,\u201d the rocker said.<\/p>\n<p>Featured image by Rune Hellestad \u2013 Corbis\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formed in 1975 England, Saxon ushered in the new wave of British heavy metal. Fifty years and eight&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[37687,96,11652,128,37688,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-73580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-biff-byford","tag-entertainment","tag-heavy-metal","tag-music","tag-saxon","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}