COAL CHAMBER's DEZ FAFARA On Drummer MIKEY 'BUG' COX's Cancer Battle: 'I'm Just Really Blessed That He's With Us'

In a new interview with KillerTube, COAL CHAMBER frontman Dez Fafara spoke about the band's return to the stage for last weekend's Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show marked COAL CHAMBER's first live appearance since drummer Mikey "Bug" Cox's successful battle with cancer. Dez said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That [gig] was insane. So, first of all, for those who don't know, in COAL CHAMBER, my drummer Mike went through cancer, stage four cancer that should have taken him out. I don't think a lot of people may have survived that. I watched him — it's hard for me to talk about, actually. I may get emotional. But I just hit him every day. I watched him go after it. He's a great father, a great husband, a great man."

Dez continued: "When we started, [Mikey] was 17 in COAL CHAMBER, so although we bonded on music and we were friends, we were never 'tight tight' because of the age gap. But now he's got a mortgage, a kid, wife. We bond on a level that is unbelievable. And watching him go head-on and take on the amount of chemo and the amount of things he had to do, and do some other stuff with me on the side that we can't discuss yet, while he was going through that was a fucking miracle."

Fafara added: "Watching him take the stage [on April 25] at Sick New World, watching that show go down, they were singing 'Sway', which is 'the roof is on fire' [chorus], 10 minutes before we even came out… Between songs, I couldn't even hear myself think, the crowd was so loud. The first person I hugged was Mike, and we both — I busted into tears, I'm not afraid to say it. And I'm just really blessed that he's with us, and people are gonna be really blessed to hear what went on while he was going through all of that with COAL CHAMBER. Again, that's for another time. But thank you for asking. That show was magnificent."

Last week Cox revealed that he was diagnosed with stage three cancer on April 1, 2025. He described the experience as "dark" and "scary" and added that he went through "a yearlong battle and absolutely brutal rounds of radiation, chemotherapy, and eventually surgery" before being declared "cancer-free".

COAL CHAMBER played its first two shows in eight years at the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas in May 2023 and at the Inkcarceration Music And Tattoo Festival in Mansfield, Ohio in July 2023. That same year, COAL CHAMBER completed a U.S. tour as the support act for MUDVAYNE.

After COVID-19 nearly took Fafara out in 2021, Dez was very vocal about his brush with death and COVID's after-effects, which were brought into view when DEVILDRIVER canceled its appearance at the 2023 Bloodstock Open Air festival in the U.K. due to inflammation in his lower heart.

In January 2025, COAL CHAMBER canceled its previously rescheduled "Fiend For The Fans" U.S. tour. The trek, which was originally slated to kick off in August 2024 before being postponed to March/April 2025 due to Fafara's health emergency, was supposed to feature support from FEAR FACTORY, TWIZTID, BLACK SATELLITE and FRAYLE.

Photo credit: Jim Morris