Clegg to stage big farewell
AFTER being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago‚ it has been legendary musician Johnny Clegg’s mission to achieve all his musical goals before retiring later this year.
The musician, who announced his retirement after 40 years in the industry in April, is preparing to take to the stage for a series of farewell concerts.
Clegg said last week that after being diagnosed, he had learnt to appreciate the little gifts in life.
“As I’m planning this‚ I’m living in a parallel universe with my condition. My chemo kind of carries me through until January and after that, it’s no man’s land. So I want to do as much as I can now and put all these things to bed‚” he said.
The Impi hitmaker said although he was feeling energetic now after his last round of chemotherapy in February‚ his doctors had warned him not to strain himself.
“I’m fit now but the oncologists say you have to entertain the fact that it might be an illusion because you have all this chemo in you‚ which is just keeping this [cancer] at bay and it has a finite life span. But when I am on stage and performing‚ I feel like I can do this forever. It’s a massive contradiction in my brain.”
He added “living on a sentence” made him appreciate everything in his life more‚ including precious moments with his family and friends.
Johnny said The Final Journey World Tour would take the form of an autobiography and would tell his life story.
He will also incorporate a Johnny Clegg and Friends concept, featuring Prime Circle‚ Karen Zoid, The Parlotones and a couple of other surprises.
The Final Journey World Tour is on at the TicketPro Dome on November 11 and at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Cape Town on November 25, as well as at the Boardwalk ICC in Port Elizabeth on January 26 and 27.