Andy Taylor gives update on prostate cancer: 'It's a death sentence'

Former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, who revealed in a letter read at the band's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction last year that he had been diagnosed with terminal stage 4 prostate cancer, is reflecting on his mortality, and urging men to have regular prostate exams.

The English musician, who turned 62 on Thursday, had kept the diagnosis to himself for four years after receiving the news in late 2018. "As harsh as it is," he recalled in a People magazine interview posted Wednesday, "it's a death sentence. So you sort of walk out of the hospital in a stunned silence, because you could never be prepared for [it] … You've got to start from the fact that it's a slow burn, so it's not going to take you quickly."

Noting that his father had died of prostate disease, "I thought this could be, and sure enough."

Taylor, who shared two Grammy Awards during the band's 1980s heyday, winning for their slickly produced, high-style music videos, is being treated with the medication abiraterone acetate. And with Damocles' sword hanging over him, he said, "Music's never had a greater value to me." He added, "One of the things that I learned early was, if you keep your mind active and you're there and physically active, it really does [make a difference]. You're carrying this grim reaper of a weight."

Last April he had confided the news to his old band's fellow co-founders — John Taylor, Roger Taylor, neither of whom are related to him or to each other, Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, when they'd learned they'd been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

In his new interview, Taylor urged men to get the standard prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test during their annual physicals. "[I]f I could get a genie out of a bottle and make one wish, it's that nobody ever has to go through what I went through," he said, quipping that Duran Duran's female fans should make the men in their lives "go get a PSA test!"

Following Duran Duran's early '80s hits including "Girls on Film," "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio," Taylor left to form The Power Station in 1984 with Robert Palmer and other stars. He also released two solo albums. Taylor rejoined Duran Duran in 2011 for five years.