Barry Manilow Recalls 'Nightmare' Lung Cancer Diagnosis: 'I Thought I Might Be Dying'
Barry Manilow has reflected on his “nightmare” lung cancer diagnosis, saying it led to an even greater appreciation for life.
“They don’t even know how long I had this thing sitting on me. It could have been years,” the singer told People in an exclusive interview, published on Tuesday.
“If it had gone any further, then I would be up shit’s creek. It just so happened that it hadn’t spread, and boy oh boy, I thought I might be dying.”
The Copacabana hit-maker explained that his doctor ordered an MRI for him after he complained about hip pain in November.
However, he also ordered an MRI for Barry’s lungs after learning the musician had recently faced two cases of bronchitis. That’s when he found something.
“If he hadn’t done that, man ... He saved my life, because there’s no symptoms for what I had. I could go on, nothing hurt — but they found the dot in my lung,” the songwriter said.
“They called me and said, ‘Could be cancer.’ That’s a bad word. ‘Not me. Fuck you. I can’t have cancer’.”
More tests confirmed Stage 1 lung cancer, Barry said. Weeks later, he underwent a lobectomy to surgically remove the affected part of his lung.
“I don’t remember it, thank goodness, because it was a nightmare,” Barry said of his hospital stint, in which he spent seven days in the ICU, following the successful surgery. “I’m one of the lucky ones; I don’t have to have chemo, radiation and all that stuff.”
Barry said his cancer diagnosis has left him feeling like he’s “not all here”.
“You just don’t even think about [how fragile life is]. And suddenly, you have lung cancer,” he said.
“But I’m still here. I’m not all here; there’s part of me that isn’t here – they took out a part of me, and now I’ve got to figure out, ‘What do I do?’”
The crooner first announced that he was diagnosed with lung cancer in a December 2025 Instagram post.
Later in his interview with People, the singer said beating cancer “really made me take a stock of my life”.
“This made me stop and think about: Have I done what I wanted to do, and have I made people happy? Have I been a good friend? All of those cornball things that I’ve read for all of my life, I started to think about that, too. It really did stop me in my tracks,” he shared.
“And the answers are yes. And as a matter of fact, there are more yeses than I ever thought.”
Barry’s story about his diagnosis comes ahead of the June release of his upcoming new album, What A Time.
After cancelling a number of live shows during his recovery from his cancer treatment, he’s scheduled to perform a string of UK arena shows over the summer.