RAVEN's JOHN GALLAGHER Opens Up About His Health Scare: 'Very Few Moments Go By Where I'm Not Reminded That I Could Be Where ACE FREHLEY Is'

In a new interview with Metal Mayhem ROC, RAVEN frontman John Gallagher opened up about his health, six months after it was announced that the British/American metal trio was postponing its previously announced summer/fall 2025 European tour so that the bassist/vocalist could undergo emergency brain surgery. Referencing RAVEN's upcoming North American tour, which is scheduled to kick off on March 18 in Louisville, Kentucky, John said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I am certainly ready for it, after all our little trials and tribulations. I call 2025 our medical gap year. My brother [RAVEN guitarist Mark Gallagher] had an ankle replacement and a knee replacement, which were kind of planned, but me getting knocked on the head and being in the ICU for two weeks and bleed on the brain wasn't planned. I'm just very, very lucky to pull through with it, with very little to show for it. Medically, I'm doing okay."

According to John, he and his RAVEN bandmates are ready to hit the road hard in 2026. "That's pretty much our attitude, is we gotta make up for that lost time," he explained. "So we will. This is a pretty extensive tour. We're going out. It goes right through till May 3rd. Then on, I think it's May 11th, we fly out to Europe and we're gonna be doing about a 15-, 16-date run there. And then the second leg of that will start in September. And in between we are planning on recording a new album."

Speaking in more detail about Mark's surgeries, John said: "Well, the ankle, Mark needed the ankle for an awful long time. I mean, you guys have seen him running around like a crazy man, but you don't see him curled up in a ball after the show. He's been in a lot of pain for many, many years, and this is something he's wanted to do. And [it was] basically bone on bone, no cartilage, so it really needed to be done. And the other thing that followed from that, of course, is all those years of compensating for the ankle with the other leg, and the knee got shot because of that. So he got both of them done. So he's a little bit more metal than what he was before."

As for how he is feeling at the moment and whether he is prepared to return to the road, John said: "Well, with my thing, I'm currently still on anti-seizure medication, which is being reviewed later this week. We'll see how we're doing. But I was basically given the green light to do whatever only a few weeks after with the caveat that 'you won't be strong enough to do any of that.' And they were right, 'cause [when] you get a head injury like that, it kind of sucks all the power out of your body to try and fix that. So it was humbling, put it that way. It took a hell of a lot out of me. But I'm doing pretty good now. And it was a little weird, a few strange things. As soon as I got back, I picked up a bass and started trying to play a few of my favorite MONTROSE riffs, and the fingers weren't going where they were supposed to go. So I put it down for a day or two and came back and realized I was about 80% of what I should have been. And I just had to work real hard and getting back to where I am — currently a little better than I was before. So I'm happy about that."

According to John, his inability to play the bass properly after being released from the hospital was "totally mental. Literally my fingers weren't going in the right place or were out of sync," he explained. "[It was] just a brain thing. Compared to a lot of people, I'm incredibly lucky. So it was just a small hurdle to work on, and it did scare me a little bit, but I was getting improvements almost immediately on that. And it only took a few weeks, and I got back to where I was supposed to be."

Referencing KISS guitarist Ace Frehley, who died last October after a fall at Ace's home, John added: "Believe me, very few moments go by where I'm not reminded [that] I could be where Ace Frehley is, and Ace could be where I am. God bless. I'm very, very lucky. My family, my friends, they've all been amazing. The doctors, the nurses, the whole deal."

Considered part of the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" movement of the early '80s, RAVEN is perhaps best remembered for its trailblazing tours in America in the early '80s that gave groups like METALLICA and ANTHRAX their first taste of the road.

In a 2014 interview with CantonRep.com, John stated about RAVEN's tour with METALLICA, dubbed the "Kill 'Em All For One Tour", the moniker coming from the combination of the bands' two albums at the time: "It was like guerilla warfare. There were 17 people in a six-person Winnebago. We ended up spending most of our time traveling in the back of one of the trucks, because it was more sanitary! You'd turn up in places like Oklahoma City going, 'Doesn't this remind you of the 'Blues Brothers?' And it was except there was no chicken wire, so when people were throwing (crap) around, it would hit you! But we'd played for punks in workingman's clubs in the North of England, so we just gave it back, kicked their beers over, jumped on the tables, and said, 'Are you with us or against us?' That was our job. It was METALLICA's first tour. We showed them the ropes, and they were completely out of control. It was great. It was like this big gang traveling across America."

RAVEN's classic albums "Rock Until You Drop", "Wiped Out" and "All For One" virtually invented both the speed metal and power metal genres, with the band consistently pushing the envelope while retaining its unique sound and attack — both in the studio and in their true element: onstage.

RAVEN's latest EP, "Can't Take Away The Fire", came out in February 2025 via Silver Lining Music.