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RATT frontman Stephen Pearcy is talking openly about his liver cancer diagnosis, after three years of keeping things close to the chest. Ultimate Classic Rock reported Pearcy has been out promoting the new film, Nothing To Lose – A Stephen Pearcy Rockumentary, which is available now on ASY TV.

During a recent chat on the Laughingmonkeymusic webcast, Pearcy shed light on his illness, saying, “Everything’s kind of copacetic now. I’m on a ritual and monitoring things. I don’t know why I’m still here, but, look, I’m appreciating every day and minute above ground here, because all of our peers are seemingly disappearing. And it’s such a drag. But it’s under control.”

He explained why he never went public about the diagnosis until now: “I never wanted to bring it up until I really started feeling guilty about it. It’s a little personal to me, but I felt it was time to share it.”

Pearcy was asked how he came to realize he had cancer: “How I found out is just through a blood test. I had hepatitis. Well, then, getting another checkup, I found out, ‘By the way, you’ve got a bit of cancer thing going there. We’ve gotta get in there.’ Then your whole world changes. Still, I didn’t feel like it needed to be out there until I started feeling guilty. Like, ‘Wow, man, I can help some people.’ Get blood tests. Take care of yourself.”

When we last caught up with Stephen Pearcy, we joked about all the crazy stories about RATT that have followed them since the early-’80s: “Hey, it’s rock n’ roll, y’know? We ain’t the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin here, y’know? (laughs) There’s other bands that have much more turmoil than Ratt — but we were an interesting batch of freaks.”