Frontman Raul Malo, center, and The Mavericks perform during the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Esplanade in Boston, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)AP
The country music world is praying for popular singer Raul Malo after it was announced Thursday that he has been hospitalized during his cancer battle.
His band, The Mavericks, made the announcement on Instagram.
“Hey everyone, unfortunately The Mavericks will no longer be performing with Dwight (Yoakam) this weekend in OKC (Feb. 21st) & Hidalgo (Feb. 23rd),” the post read. “Raul has been experiencing complications from his December surgery and is back in the hospital getting the care he needs to make a full recovery.
“We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as Raul’s treatment continues,” the statement added.
Fans and followers were quick to respond with prayers and well-wishes.
“Please give Raul our best wishes and prayers for healing,” one person wrote.
“Sending love light and healing vibes,” another wrote.
“Praying Raul takes it easy and recovers totally,” another wrote. “Don’t push it or might do damage.”
There were plenty more comments like that and you can see them along with the post below:
A post shared by The Mavericks (@the_mavericks)
Malo first announced in January that he had surgery on Dec. 10 to remove a tumor from his liver. He said back then he was taking time off to recover. The band only recently returned to touring in February.
“These shows will be a good barometer for me to be able to gauge my stamina,” Malo said of the dates earlier this month. “Our sets run approximately an hour with this lineup. The only shows moved so far this year (aside from the cruise) are our recent headlining shows. They conflicted with my chemo schedule (and we need to adhere to that obviously).”
Malo said then he was currently on the (second) round “of the next five or six rounds.”
“Doctor will make that determination as we get closer,” he said. “The goal is to make sure there’s no cancer left. The team is reasonably confident that after the colon surgery we should be done if the scans and tests agree. I think it’s fair to say that this is a fluid situation to a certain degree. We will keep you updated regularly. And if there are any disruptions to the touring schedule we will inform you as soon as possible. Anyways, thank you all for your kind words of encouragement and for your understanding of the situation.”
The colon surgery appears to be a second surgery following his December 10 surgery that he said was to remove a tumor from his liver.
Malo, 59, also addressed fans earlier this year in a video shared to the band’s Instagram when he discussed his surgery.
“I wanted to catch you up on my health as we go through this journey,” Malo said in the video. “Some of you know that I had liver surgery on December 10th. They successfully removed a tumor from the liver, and we are going into the fourth week of recovery, and they said 4-to-6 weeks recovery which would of course take me into the timing of the cruise and so we just want to give you fair warning that we will not be on the cruise and we are really sorry about that. We love starting off the year with the cruise and some place warm and tropical and believe we could all use that.
“I’m feeling strong,” he continued. “And even though I’m in a little bit of discomfort, like it’s really hard to hold a guitar up to my body, and I don’t know if I can sing because there’s one thing where you can recover, but you also have to be in performing shape, and I’m nowhere near that, at least not a performance worth writing about or talking about.” Malo announced his diagnosis in late June in an Instagram video.
“In the last couple of years, we out here on the road, we have been on a health kick,” he said. “Treating ourselves a little better. Taking care out ourselves a little better, and really trying to do all the right things as far as nutrition, etc. So, part of the health journey is to get yourself checked out. Go to a doctor, take a physical and start there.”
Malo said that is what he did.
“And that led to another appointment with a gastrointestinal specialist, which led to a CAT scan,” he said. “And that proved to show two cancerous spots.”
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