TALAS Singer PHIL NARO Is Battling Tongue Cancer

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

TALAS singer Phil Naro has revealed that he is battling tongue cancer. The 62-year-old musician told iHeartRadio.ca that his cancer returned in the fall of 2019, six years after he had a tumor removed from his neck. "I'm doing 33 rounds of radiation and two rounds of chemo and 33 rounds of laser therapy," he said. Several months ago, Naro reunited with bassist Billy Sheehan to record a new TALAS album, which is tentatively due in 2021. "I managed to finish recording before I started my treatments," he said. "It was painful at times to sing, but I managed to finish." A GoFundMe campaign has been launched "to help reduce some of this burden away from Phil during this incredibly arduous journey." At presstime, nearly $19,000 had been raised. "I'm not going down," Naro said. "I'm going to fight this cancer right till the bitter end." After fronting TALAS in the 1980s, Naro paired his powerful voice on a number of recording projects with KISS founding member Peter Criss and later with Canadian rockers CONEY HATCH. Phil also co-wrote and recorded several tracks with guitarist and founding member of THE RASCALS, Gene Cornish, and co-wrote three songs for Canadian artist Lee Aaron for her 1989 album "Bodyrock". TALAS's new album will be released through Metal Blade Records. Kings of the Buffalo, New York bar circuit, TALAS slogged it out through the 1970s and 1980s, hoping for the breakthrough that never quite came. When David Lee Roth left VAN HALEN, Sheehan immediately joined Roth's band, putting an effective end to TALAS. Photo courtesy of Phil Naro's Facebook page