Musician Michael Bolton recently revealed that he was diagnosed with glioblastoma in December 2023.
His family shared the “super weird” symptoms that led him to see a doctor.
“I want to keep going. I feel there’s still a lot to do on the fight side,” he said.
Last January, Michael Bolton told fans on Instagram that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In a recent interview, he and his family shared the initial symptoms that ultimately led to his diagnosis of glioblastoma, a fast-growing, rare type of cancerous tumor.
The red flags popped up during a family bowling outing, his daughter Taryn told People. Randomly, Michael, 72, bowled out of turn—not once, but twice. Taryn and other family members noticed and recalled it as a “super weird” moment. “That was when we were like, ‘Something’s wrong with his brain,’” she said. Another perturbing occurrence happened earlier in the night, at dinner. “He fell out of his chair to the left, which is very unusual. He’s super athletic, and he doesn’t drink,” she added. “So he fell, and we were like, ‘What just happened?’”
At the time, Bolton was quite busy with work and performing. “Everything that happened was weird for him but not super alarming,” she recalled. He also experienced a bout of unusual nausea and balance issues at a mid-November charity event. But the family attributed them to age-related maladjustment to the musician’s lifestyle.
“Is this stress? Is this [lack of] sleep?” Taryn recalled pondering. “He’d been working nonstop that whole time. Traveling, doing shows, doing all of these things. We were like, he’s getting older, he’s tired, he’s stressed out. All of these things we sort of explained in a way, one by one.” Now, of course, the family’s hindsight is 20/20. “When you look back at everything together,” Taryn said. “We missed so many things.”
The bowling and fall incidents happened around Thanksgiving 2023. Within a few days, after noticing a “bad” headache, Bolton and his family decided it was best for him to see a doctor. An MRI confirmed that he had a brain tumor, and he underwent emergency surgery on December 4 of that year to remove it entirely. Later, the mass was confirmed as glioblastoma.
Glioblastomas are rare, malignant, stage four cancerous tumors that affect the brain and sometimes the spinal cord. According to the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA), more than 12,000 diagnoses occur annually. Symptoms are vague, and can include those that Bolton experienced as well as seizures, memory and language problems, changes in personality, fatigue, and muscle weakness or paralysis.
There is no cure, and treatment includes the shrinking or elimination of tumors via surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation. Bolton told People he has done all three and undergoes scans every two months to monitor for tumor recurrence, which is likely. Bolton chose not to receive a prognosis, but the average American survival rate for the disease in people over 40 is 5.6%, according to the ABTA.
The Grammy-winning artist’s short-term memory, speech, and mobility have been impacted by treatments, but he persists—he golfs often, works with a personal trainer, is taking voice lessons, and is spending as much time as possible with his three daughters and six grandchildren.
“I want to keep going. I feel there’s still a lot to do on the fight side,” he said. “I got a title for a song: ‘Ain’t Going Down Without a Fight.’”
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