Johnny Clegg On His Book, His Illness And Being Honoured

Legendary star Johnny Clegg who has touched many heart with his musical talent has opened up about his illness, his autobiography book and how he feels about the tribute of The Crossing made possible by 50 Local artists.

Speaking about the tribute the 65-year-old said expressed how he felt when he heard it.

“It was an incredible moment to me. The song was written in 1992 – and to have my peers as well as the next generation all singing it – it took my breath away. It made my day. You know I was having a bad day, I’ve had some health problems, and I sat there after having just done a performance in Cape Town at Ellerman House for the Click Foundation and they said, ‘sit here Johnny, we want you to watch this.’ And they ambushed me (laughs). I was not expecting anything, I didn’t know what I was going to see, and I was crying by the end of it.”

It was announced a while back that the star will be retiring due to his illness, but it seems he’s still on the road performing.

“Well I am semi-retired now, due to my health. Which is why I had to cancel the second half of my world tour; I still have to do the western side of America because I did the east coast, I still have to do France, Belgium and Switzerland. I still have to do Australia and the western side of Canada. I’ve just come off six months of chemotherapy and then I had to go into stereotactic radiation because it (cancer) has metastasized into my lungs.

About the progress on the autobiography, the music legend said:

“I’m about 150 pages in and it’s about halfway done. I’ve had to wait at times because I’ve done interviews with my old band mates and sometimes, they’re not in the country. The record company that released me in 1983 in England doesn’t exist (anymore) but the owner is still there, and we keep in contact, so I’m going to have to go back to England to interview him and some of the other people who were involved in the very tortuous moments.”