Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson detailed in a sit-down with Dan Rather on AXS TV’s The Big Interview that he’s been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD.)
In the preview clip below, Anderson tells Rather, “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anybody in public before. Since it’s you, I will choose this moment to say I am suffering from an incurable lunch disease with which I was diagnosed a couple of years back. I do struggle; I have what are known as exacerbations – periods when I get an infection, it turns into severe bronchitis, and I have maybe two or three weeks of really a tough job to go out there onstage and play.”
Anderson adds, “Fingers crossed, I’ve gone 18 months now without an exacerbation and I’m on medication. If I’m kept in a reasonably pollution-free environment in terms of air quality, I do OK. But my days are numbered. It’s not yet at the point that it affects my day to day life – I can still run for the bus.”
Anderson’s episode of The Big Interview airs Wednesday, May 13 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on AXS TV.