WARRANT's STEVEN SWEET On His Health Issues: 'I Like To Put On A Good Façade' But 'I'm Crumbling Inside In Other Ways'

In a new interview with Anthony Bryant of The Hair Metal Guru, WARRANT drummer Steven Sweet discussed some of the health issues he has dealt with in recent years, including a cancer scare back in 2018. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The cancer issue, that's gone. It's gone. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it was deemed to be moderately progressive, which means not as bad as it could be, but worse than not. Not too bad. It was middle of the road. So, they determined that the cancer was encapsulated. It was still just in the prostate — it hadn't spread beyond, so I opted to have it surgically removed.

"When you have your prostate removed as a guy, not that nobody tells you, but it doesn't really sink in to what that affects in the long run and what that means to you as a guy," he continued. "What are you gonna be able to do after that's taken out? And it's sort of a hit-or-miss situation. There's function and there's form that can be interrupted if the nerves are damaged, which that's the main problem, is that the nerves encapsulate the prostate, and they have to peel the nerves back to remove the prostate. Leaving the nerves intact is the hardest thing to do, so that's what controls your function, your erectile function. What they also don't tell you, and you can't understand it when they do, is that the prostate is a valve, and it controls how easily you pee or you don't pee and how you hold it in or you don't hold it in. And so once that valve's gone, you have to learn how to keep it in without that valve using different muscles. And it's the strangest thing. Both of those things are the strangest thing. So when you have an orgasm, it doesn't involve any product coming out. There's no muss, no fuss. That's the good thing. You can just shoot joy. It doesn't make a mess. There's nothing. But it does feel different without that warm love flowing through your body. It does feel different."

Steven added: "So those are the two things that are primary. And that's obviously aside from [the fact that] cancer can kill you, and that's why I opted to have it removed entirely 'cause I didn't wanna leave any chance that there wouldn't be a chance that I couldn't survive or it would come back. And I didn't wanna struggle with any sort of treatments that would cause terrible side effects and still not be 100% confirmed that they would cure everything. So that was a big one. But two weeks after I had my prostate removed, I did have another spinal fusion, so I'd be, like, 'Get it done, get it done one after the other.' I would have done it at the same time had they allowed me to do that. But because of issues with anesthesia and recovery things, they wouldn't do back-to-back surgeries. That's just a few that I've had. I've had more [health issues] since 2018, but not cancer — thankfully."

Asked if everything is okay with him health-wise right now. Steven said: "I'm pretty good, yeah. I like to put on a good façade. I'm crumbling inside in other ways. I still have massive shoulder issues. I have massive hand, arthritis issues. I had a hip replacement two years ago. What else? It's always ongoing. I ruptured a bicep tendon, which means my bicep is half hanging on my arm now, so it just doesn't end."

Regarding how long he feels he can keep playing drums, Steven said: "I'll keep going as long as I can keep going. I mean, I can work through pain issues. It used to bother me more than they do now. But physically, my having a torn bicep — it's torn and it's inoperable, which is the other thing about it, is that it's torn from the top of what's basically up at the shoulder joint, which is why it tore, is because my shoulder is so out of whack that the bones were rubbing against the top of the tendon, the bicep tendon, and it frayed it so much that when I closed the dishwasher drawer, it just snapped and it was gone. So that was inoperable because there was so little to work with. They can't really pull it back into place now. But that doesn't affect my playing, which is an amazing thing to hear from your doctor. [American former professional football quarterback] John Elway won two Super Bowls with a torn bicep. So if he can do it, I can do it. But to answer your question directly, I will go as long as I can, and I foresee that being till forever. I'm just gonna keep going."

Although prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer found in men and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men, it can also be one of the most treatable forms of cancer.

On average, approximately one in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.

WARRANT's latest album, "Louder Harder Faster", was released in May 2017 via Frontiers Music Srl.