Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor is “fighting as hard as he can” as he continues treatment for cancer, his bandmates have said, as they addressed his absence at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy.
The musician, 63, revealed in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018. The following year he said his cancer was “asymptomatic”, having previously been told he needed “palliative, end-of-life care”.
Speaking at a press conference at Sanremo, frontman Simon Le Bon told attendees that Taylor’s cancer was “very late, fourth-stage metastasised cancer”.
“He’s fighting as hard as he can,” he said of his bandmate, the Daily Mail reported, “and we are with him in that fight”.
Andy Taylor joined Duran Duran in April 1980 and left after six years to pursue a solo career. He rejoined the band in 2001 for a series of successful concerts – as well as their 2004 album, Astronaut – before leaving again in 2006.
In 2023, he hit back at reports that there was bad blood between him and his former bandmates, pointing to a moving letter read out by Le Bon as the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Taylor did not attend the ceremony due to ill health.
In the same interview, he discussed how he had approached a doctor who told him about a treatment involving radioactive chemicals given intravenously, which would target only cancer cells.
He said he was declared “asymptomatic” after the treatment and called the scientist, Christopher Evans, the “Elon Music of cancer”.
Taylor said two symptoms alerted him that something was wrong: bone pain while jogging, which he almost mistook for arthritis after his years of live performances, and erectile dysfunction, which was masked by his use of Viagra.
Asked about the prospect of returning to Duran Duran, he also said: “No, I’m not going to rejoin the band ... I would not say no to (part time for) the opportunity, particularly for the fans, but as I keep reminding people, you have to be asked.”
Speaking at the panel in Italy, Le Bon explained what it is that has kept the the British pop group together all these years.
“First of all, we love the music we make together – nobody else makes music like we do,” he said. “We’ve tried doing things on our own, and it just doesn’t seem to be as exciting as when the four of us get together and work.”
He continued: “We make each other laugh. I think that’s really important in a long relationship. When we’re under stress, we laugh our way through it and it keeps everything light and fun. And the other thing is, we split all the proceeds equally… we all share equally in the finances.”
Adding to his point, bassist John Taylor said chemistry was “so important” in groups and that he felt the “day of the group is almost gone… were there any groups at the Grammys this year?”
“We grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, and we saw that dynamic play out onstage and on record, where you have equal partners bringing something special to everything that they do, and we haven’t found a way of improving on that,” he said. “There’s something very special about our chemistry with each other.”
During the festival, Duran Duran performed a number of their classic hits including “Ordinary World”, “Girls on Film”, “Psycho Killer” and “Wild Boys”.
