Our Lady Peace's Meaning Of 'Life' Changed By Cancer Scare
Our Lady Peace bassist Duncan Coutts rejoined the band last week after recovering from a potentially life-threatening illness. The real-life drama is echoed in the sentiments of the band's latest single, "Life." The band even shot the song's video at a critical time for Coutts.
Drummer Jeremy Taggart told LAUNCH that learning about Coutts's ailment was frightening. "When we first heard in January it was unbelievable. They thought there was a tumor in his pancreas, and they didn't know whether it was malignant or benign. And you know how bad that can be. So we had the feeling, 'Oh my God, this is terrible.' For some reason the doctor kept saying that he's 90 percent sure that it's not cancerous, and we're like, they said it was like five and a half centimeters, so we were like, man, this is unbelievable. This is terrible."
Singer Raine Maida added, "Tumors of the pancreas are usually 90 percent bad news, and results are never good."
Taggart told LAUNCH that Coutts was on the band's mind when the band shot the video for "Life." "We actually filmed the 'Life' video, and the next day Duncan went in for surgery, and we were like, 'This may be the last time we're gonna see this guy.' He went in, and it turned out that it was just enlarged and there was no tumor at all, so we were so relieved. And the fact that the process of him getting back--originally he wasn't supposed to be getting back until like May, but because it wasn't that bad of a surgery, they took out his gallbladder, and he ended up being out for about six weeks. It's so nice to have him back."
Coutts said that it was nice to be back and thanked all Our Lady Peace fans for their support. "It's nice to be back on the road, and I can't tell you how good it feels to be back on tour."
-- Darren Davis, New York
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