“The ’90s were one thing where we lived for the day and didn’t care what happened. “It was an emotional moment for me!” he laughs. In the statement that accompanied his release, he declared: “This miracle of the modern medical process has literally bought me a second chance at living!” For a man armed with a reputation as one of metal’s great nihilists, this was a remarkably un-Mike-like expression of joy. Once he was discharged, a month of convalescing at a hospital-approved apartment followed before the singer was finally allowed to go home. Mike received his new liver in December 2016. I’ve felt 20 years younger since it happened, to be honest with you.” I was sinking lower and lower, but with the help of science and some of the best doctors in the country – New Orleans has some of the best doctors when it comes to liver disease and transplants – they put me back together again. “Your liver is connected to everything, so when your liver goes, everything else goes too.
But when I say I was gone, I was right up to the edge,” he continues without flinching.
“I didn’t actually die because I’m still here talking to you. The crowd-funding continued, famous friends rallied, and benefit gigs were also organised as Mike grew ever weaker and awaited a transplant. But the bills continued to mount and they needed more money. The response to the campaign was instant, the pair reaching their target of $50,000 dollars in mere days. The expenses are astronomical and overwhelming,” she wrote on her YouCaring page. While fans knew he was ill, no-one other than his bandmates, close friends, and family knew just how unwell he actually was.Īs the medical bills increased and Mike’s insurance tripled, Michelle was forced to set up a crowd-funding campaign to cover the spiralling costs. run of shows in October with UK punks Discharge where another friend, Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe, assumed vocal duties. In August of 2016 he’d missed two shows with Eyehategod due to his faltering health – his friend Phil Anselmo had stepped in to replace him. An intensely private man, at first he refused to inform the wider world that he’d been hospitalised. For Mike and his wife Michelle, the wait to find a suitable donor was long and expensive.
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