Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Mikey “Bug” Cox, the drummer for Coal Chamber, has talked more about his fight with cancer and the side effects of his treatment, as per theprp. After receiving a stage 3 cancer diagnosis on April 1st, 2025, Cox startled fans earlier this year by disclosing that he has fought the illness in seclusion. Cox discussed his struggle and the operation he is currently undergoing to address certain health problems brought on by his original cancer surgery and therapy in a recent interview with We Were Loud Once. Although Cox performed on stage with his bandmates at three festivals this spring, the group was recently forced to postpone their presence at this fall’s ‘Louder Than Life’ festival because Cox needed more surgery.
I did five weeks of radiation, which, by the end of it, was pure hell. I was down to 152 pounds. I could barely walk. It was brutal. They gave me the highest dose of radiation the body could take. So we treated it really aggressively because I had a bigger tumor, so we wanted to shrink it down. And then I did five months of chemo through a PICC line in my arm. So I had to go sit in the chemo chair for three hours a couple of times every other week. I did that for five months, I believe.
And then it shrunk the tumor down to about a half inch. So that was exactly what they said was gonna happen, and I was able to have surgery. So I went in and had a five-and-a-half-hour surgery. This was in January. I had a five-and-a-half-hour surgery, and they cut out the rest of the cancer. Then we had to wait for the test to come back, and the test came back and they said they got all of it; all the margins were good. So, as of right now, I’m cancer-free, but I do need to have another surgery in the next month to put the rest of my insides back together, ’cause right now I have things that are rerouted.
They’re gonna reroute everything back to normal in January, and hopefully that’s the last surgery. But right now I’m dealing with a lot of the side effects from cancer. Like, my feet are numb all the time, and my hands and my joints and all that stuff. So the last two shows we just played were an adventure. We just played a couple of weekends ago.
So it’s a little harder to play. My energy level’s still not where it used to be, ’cause I play semi-crazy. So, we’re getting there slowly, and every show gets better. And, yeah, that’s basically where we’re at with the whole thing.
