Please forgive the opus length of this, but it's been a very long time since I've written in this blog. The main reason why I've resumed after penning more than 580 past blogs, is because since my cancer diagnosis in 2010, I've attacked life with gusto I didn't realize I'd had.

Daft Punk's Random Access Memories album - is the jumping off point, as it was during my post-operative recovery period in 2011, that the robots visited me at my New York apartment. We'd soon record three life changing songs together: "Get Lucky," "Lose Yourself To Dance," and the personally prophetic "Give Life Back To Music."

The session took place at Electric Lady Studios, which required me to walk the streets of my childhood Greenwich Village neighborhood. This was also the studio where I'd cut CHIC's 1st hit "Dance, Dance, Dance." These random events had deep meaning to me and it inspired me to turn my life's volume up to Spinal Tap 11. Music was my main reason for living and it gave me back my life. I don't expect others to understand this, but that's the way I feel.

Soon after that Daft Punk session, my memoir was published. Between book tours and rebuilding my band's live concert tours, I worked at an insane level, but this was physically and spiritually therapeutic. In six years I didn't miss one single appearance until Sunday, August, 13, 2017.

During our tour with super-group Earth, Wind & Fire, I'd gotten a debilitating bout of food poisoning, but the doctors didn't want to treat me with antibiotics until they were sure that it was actually a bacterial infection. After a few days the culture revealed that it was E.coli. They treated me and I only missed that one show in Toronto.

But here's where the story takes a hard twist.

Though 2016 and 2017 had been banner years for me: I mean we played to millions of people, set multiple attendance records, and I had a string of Billboard #1 dance hits, including a record with Kimberly Davis, who sings with my band CHIC...but those bountiful years started on a decidedly dark note.

One of my greatest artists, David Bowie, died at the top of 2016, a few months later Prince passed away and then George Michael died Christmas Day, 48 hours after I'd just worked on his film and worked on his last record. My friend, musician extraordinaire Chris Cornell, would die this past spring. My young 1st cousin dropped dead of a coronary with no prior warning...and my mother is currently suffering from Stage-VI Alzheimer's. During my brief stay in the hospital to treat E.coli, the doctors discovered a mysterious growth on my right kidney which looked like cancer.

Well...it was CANCER! In fact, it was two different cancers within one mass.

Unlike my reaction to my first Big-C diagnosis seven years ago, I was more relaxed, analytic and calm. I was surrounded by professionalism and empathy which gave me a surprising sense of inner peace. After the doctors told me, "We believe it's cancer," I did a lot of gigging and a lot of flying: Two countries in South America, Dubai, Japan, Ireland, Liverpool, London and we ended our last round of this year's gigs in Brooklyn, NY.

Right after the show, I flew directly from Brooklyn, to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY. The following day I had surgery to remove the carcinogenic mass - and my prognosis is 100% recovery. (You can start dancing, singing and cheering now!)

This situation has delayed some big plans for this year, but what will happen next year is beyond any of my wildest dreams. I'll discuss that in my soon-to-be-released next blog.

After the last seven years of amazing life, I would have never believed that my body would be invaded by another cancer. CANCER REALLY? I'm done. 2018 here I come!