The Who's Roger Daltrey Reveals Cancer Scare

Roger Daltrey, one of the leading lights behind the Teenager Cancer Trust charity, has admitted to suffering a cancer scare himself.

The Who's singer went under the knife to remove a pre-cancerous growth on one of his vocal chords in December 2009, he revealed in an interview with CBS Los Angeles, which you can see after the jump.

Daltrey became aware of the issue six weeks ahead of his band's appearance at the Super Bowl. "Suddenly my voice wasn't behaving in the normal way," he said. "It was becoming hard work to sing. I just got lucky that somebody put me in touch with Steven Zeitels [Director of the voice centre at Massachusetts General Hospital].

He added, "He told me that he didn't like what he saw. He took off what he could from the problem area on my vocal cord. I had to do two weeks of no talking, no drinking; and this was Christmas and New Year -- it was so tough."

Daltrey was well enough to perform with The Who at the Super Bowl half-time show, yet still struggled through the recovery. "I got depressed after he did the operation, during what I call the big silence," he explained. "That's when I realised what it would be really like to not have a voice."

Daltrey is now having check-ups with Zeitels after performances and expressed support for the Institute of Laryngology and Voice Restoration, a group started by the doctor's patients to promote a new technique he has in development. "It will give people who have no voice, not even a voice box, a voice again," said the rock veteran. "And that's going to be an extraordinary achievement."

Watch Roger Daltrey Interviewed About Teenage Cancer Trust