Midnight Oil Drummer Rob Hirst Reveals Cancer Diagnosis
69-year-old Hirst, who co-founded the Sydney rock outfit in the '70s, revealed his diagnosis publicly in an interview with The Australian, explaining that he has been living with the disease for two years. Hirst noted he had received confirmation of his condition about six months after Midnight Oil wrapped up the Australian leg of their farewell tour in October 2023, and he's been receiving constant medical assistance since.
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'So it's ongoing,' Hirst told the publication. 'I've had pretty much every treatment known to man – every scan, ultrasound, MRI. I've kind of had 'the works.''
Hirst explained that he was diagnosed 'early,' with his tumor being caught while at stage three. Upon learning of his condition, Hirst embarked upon months of chemotherapy before an unsuccessful eight-hour 'Whipple' surgery to attempt the removal of the tumor. He has since continued with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Though initially keeping his diagnosis a secret, Hirst has since gone public to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, noting that it 'hasn't really attracted the attention, for example, of skin cancers or breast cancers or others.' According to data from Cancer Australia, the average survival rate of individuals between 2016 and 2020 was 13%, with men given a chance of 12%.
'Coming up to two years, I thought I just need to get this, literally, off my chest,' Hirst explained. 'Also, I think that the lesson for me – and maybe why I've lasted this long – is because, if you do have any of that kind of symptom, where there's something that you feel is wrong, just go and get a simple blood test. It could be life-changing, and life-extending.'
Midnight Oil first formed in Sydney in 1972 as Farm, before adopting their later moniker in 1976. The group initially released eleven albums before splitting in 2002, with their breakthrough coming in 1982 with 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, which hit No. 3 in Australia.
Their following three albums – 1984's Red Sails in the Sunset, 1987's Diesel and Dust, and 1990's Blue Sky Mining – all topped the Australian charts, while the latter gave them a peak of No. 20 on the Billboard 200. Their 1987 single 'Beds Are Burning' is often considered a landmark of Australian music, with its message of Indigenous land rights also resonating internationally and peaking at No. 17 on the Hot 100.
While the band would be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006, they would reform a decade later in 2016, and following a global reunion tour, they issued The Makarrata Project in 2020 and Resist in 2022. While both albums would reach No. 1 in Australia, the former was released just one week before longtime bassist Bones Hillman passed from cancer at the age of 62.
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