Nile Rodgers feels like the "luckiest man in the world’ after beating cancer for a second time.
The 66-year-old guitar legend celebrated last week’s release of ‘It’s About Time’ – the first new album from his band Chic for 26 years – with a special performance on Saturday evening (29.09.18) at Pryzm nightclub in Kingston, south west London, and whilst on stage he told his adoring fans that he is "cancer-free".
Before performing a rendition of ‘Get Lucky’, Nile – who had his second cancer scare in 2017 – said: "The thing I haven’t told many people is that I’m a two-time cancer survivor. The first time I was stricken I was at home trying to recover and the doctors didn’t know what was happening, they didn’t know what my outcome would be. They told me to go home and contemplate the rest of my life, I was like, ‘Damn bro, I’m a songwriter, I’m a simple man. If I’m going to do something for the rest of my life, what am I going to do?’ So I decided I was going to write more songs than I’ve ever written in my entire life, I’m going to do more live shows than I’ve ever done in my entire life, and as you can hear with the new album I’m going to do more collaborations than I’ve ever done in my entire life.
"Out of the clear blue sky I got a phone call from two French guys called Daft Punk and a brother named Pharrell Williams and they said, ‘Hey Nile, let’s get together and write some songs. One of the songs we wrote was called ‘Get Lucky’, and, you know, I feel like the luckiest man in the world because I have now beaten cancer twice, as I stand here before you I’m cancer free! And I have a new album because of it … So this is how we’re going to offer up our version of ‘Get Lucky’."
Nile and his band ran through a selection of Chic’s greatest hits to mark the record’s release, such as ‘I Want Your Love’, ‘Le Freak’ and ‘Good Times’, at the gig organised by Banquet Records.
The group also performed their versions of Sister Sledge’s ‘We Are Family’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ by David Bowie much to the delight of the crowd.