COAL CHAMBER's MIKEY COX Opens Up About His Cancer Battle: 'I Did Five Weeks Of Radiation, Which Was Pure Hell'

In a new interview with Jeff Geaghan and Dan Cinotto of the We Were Loud Once podcast, COAL CHAMBER has drummer Mikey "Bug" Cox discussed his recent cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatment. Regarding how he came to find out that he had cancer, Cox said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I own a construction company here in Los Angeles, and that's what I do when I'm off tour and stuff. It keeps me busy. And I was feeling really bad at work. So we were actually about to leave for a family vacation to Costa Rica, so I said, 'Let me go to the hospital and get checked out so I'm not going to the hospital in Costa Rica.' And they did some tests on me, some scans and all that stuff, and when I woke up from the sedation from the tests and stuff, they told me I had stage three cancer. So [they] instantly admitted me to the hospital. It was just a whirlwind. My wife was there. And they admitted me to the hospital so I can immediately get the scans done to see if it was localized and all that stuff. So the first day being there, I had the surgeons come in, the doctors come in, and they all tell you kind of the worst-case scenario. So we kind of didn't know where it was going. And then by midnight or so, I got my first scans done, and in the morning they came in and said it was localized, so it's treatable. So we kind of went from there."

Mikey continued: "Once we found out [I had cancer], I didn't wanna put it on social media, I didn't wanna worry too many people. I keep my circle very small, with my family, and I'm pretty private. If I didn't have COAL CHAMBER, I probably wouldn't have social media at all, 'cause I just think it's the death of humanity. [Laughs] Everybody has an opinion. So, we kept it small until we knew more facts. So that was on April Fool's Day of last year, believe it or not, when they told me. So we went to the hospital. They got the scans. I left and then met with my oncologist, and they put a plan in place, and I'm telling you exactly how they described how the cancer journey would go, I'm telling you, to the day, it went exactly like that."

Detailing his cancer treatment, Cox said: "I did five weeks of radiation, which, by the end of it, was pure hell. I was down to 152 pounds. I could barely walk. It was brutal. They gave me the highest dose of radiation the body could take. So we treated it really aggressively because I had a bigger tumor, so we wanted to shrink it down. And then I did five months of chemo through a PICC [Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter] line in my arm. So I had to go sit in the chemo chair for three hours a couple of times every other week. I did that for five months, I believe. And then it shrunk the tumor down to about a half inch. So that was exactly what they said was gonna happen, and I was able to have surgery. So I went in and had a five-and-a-half-hour surgery. This was in January. I had a five-and-a-half-hour surgery, and they cut out the rest of the cancer. Then we had to wait for the test to come back, and the test came back and they said they got all of it; all the margins were good. So, as of right now, I'm cancer-free, but I do need to have another surgery in the next month to put the rest of my insides back together, 'cause right now I have things that are rerouted. They're gonna reroute everything back to normal in January, and hopefully that's the last surgery. But right now I'm dealing with a lot of the side effects from cancer. Like, my feet are numb all the time, and my hands and my joints and all that stuff. So the last two shows we just played were an adventure. We just played a couple of weekends ago. So it's a little harder to play. My energy level's still not where it used to be, 'cause I play semi-crazy. So, we're getting there slowly, and every show gets better. And, yeah, that's basically where we're at with the whole thing."

Mikey also talked about his decision to partner with Fuck Cancer, which fights cancer by raising awareness with an emphasis on early detection, to give away a unique one-of-kind custom drum kit. He said: "I didn't want to announce [that I had cancer] until we kind of knew we were out of the woods. 'Cause you get a diagnosis of cancer and you instantly think death, and you instantly think the worst, and everybody on this planet knows somebody who's dealt with cancer. And a lot of people don't survive it. So once we got on the other side of it, I thought it was better to announce. So I was working with the Fuck Cancer guys for the whole year creating the drum set that I'm giving away and all that stuff. So I kept it a secret for a long time, just 'cause I didn't wanna worry certain people, and all that kind of stuff. But I am extremely grateful to be on the other side of it. My wife was my caretaker every day. She got me to all my appointments, because if it was up to me, I probably wouldn't have done them all, 'cause musicians are semi careless, we'll say. Before this, I was not a fan of going to the hospital for anything, and I got to a point where I was at the hospital every single day, basically. So I just listened to my doctors, listened to my wife, and thank God we're on the other side of it."

COAL CHAMBER recently canceled its appearance at this year's edition of the Louder Than Life festival in order to allow Cox to undergo his final surgery related to his cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatment.

COAL CHAMBER's appearance at this year's Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, Nevada in April marked the band's first live performance since Cox's successful battle with cancer.

In late April, 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".

In early May, COAL CHAMBER frontman Dez Fafara told KillerTube about the band's return to the stage at the 2026 Sick New World festival: "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."

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.