Rock’n roll never dies, so neither does Walter Grootaers. Last September, the frontman of De Kreuners withdrew from the spotlight to focus on his treatment for liver cancer. Until last week that redeeming photo appeared on Instagram. I’m back, bitches.
And indeed, when we meet him in his favorite steakhouse in Lier, he looks spry. Mischievous laugh intact, only slightly huskier than before. “For the past forty years the public had problems with my voice, now myself. Each tour is nothing too much. (laughs)” The tone has been set.
First and foremost: how are you? Many people were clearly happy to see you again.
“I was also very happy myself. (grins) It has not been an easy year, especially those first weeks were tough. When you hear that you have cancer, it takes you a moment to process it. But as soon as I told all my children, I turned a switch and started immunotherapy. Once a month, to kill the cancer cells and shrink the tumor. That worked well.”
Have you suffered a lot from side effects?
“The hardest part was the dehydration – not only for the voice, my nails also started to crack – and the fatigue. But my schedule was cleared, I had nothing to do but heal. After three or four months the tumor appeared to have already halved. They were able to operate a month later and I was allowed to go home four days later. So I don’t want to complain too much. The treatment has now also been stopped. I have to have regular check-ups, and that will continue for a while. But right now all the cancer cells are out of my body.”
“I still have to have regular check-ups, and that will continue for a while. But currently all the cancer cells are out of my body.” — © Dirk Leunis
Have you been afraid?
“Naturally. I am an optimist, but I can also be extremely melancholic. Although that won’t last long. I have never moped for more than three days. I reason from that. Look, the doctors immediately told me that a transplant was not necessary. I’ve been eating with great relish for years, so I no longer have the liver of a twenty-year-old. But it is still in good condition, not greased. That is why they were able to quickly start immunotherapy. From that moment on I knew: aha, there is a way out. That was enough to not start thinking negatively.”
The tumor was actually discovered by chance.
(nods) “At one point I lost a lot of weight, almost daily. I was also hardly hungry anymore, and I slept very restlessly. Whether I was on my right or left side, it all hurt. The radiologist in Lier saw in photos that there was a small floating tumor stuck to my stomach. Benign. ‘But there’s something serious in your liver, Walter. I would like to refer you to Leuven.’ The strange thing was that once the professor there asked for my history, he already saw that tumor in the photos of my corona infection. Then we are talking about three years ago.”
“Since my stroke, I can no longer sign the same as before, my motor skills have not recovered one hundred percent”
Walter Grootaers
Singer
But no one noticed it at the time?
(shakes head) “We were of course in the middle of that first lockdown. We were faced with something completely new, my corona was a top priority at the time. And that is in the lungs, not in the liver. I don’t blame anyone either, let that be clear. I was treated wonderfully in Leuven, everyone knew my file thoroughly. They even asked me if they could use it as a study object. Of course that was allowed. I thought that was important. Whether it ends well or badly, others can benefit from it.”
I think it’s great that you talk about it so serenely. While in five years you have suffered a cerebral infarction, corona, and this.
“It can stop now. Please just let it be a bit of a toothache next time. (laughs) Okay, I’m not the same anymore. For example, since that stroke I can no longer sign the same as before, my motor skills have not recovered one hundred percent. That’s why I can’t ski anymore. I would have to take classes again, and I don’t feel like doing that. You can also take beautiful walks in the mountains. It all ended well. Why then look back with sour eyes?”
“The professor already saw the tumor in my liver in the photos of my corona infection, so we are talking about three years ago.” — © Margit Vantortelboom
For many people that would be a challenge.
“Yes, maybe. (pause) Maybe it has something to do with my childhood? From my birth until I was a teenager, we moved five or six times. Always saying goodbye to an environment and to your friends, as a child I was very sensitive to that. Perhaps I then learned to close periods easily and to rationalize.”
On to the future then. This fall, for the first time since 1993, your solo album will be released.
“I have been translating rock songs from English for years, as a good exercise. And when I recovered from corona at home, there were no prospects. I was very moved by the images I saw in the news, people who could not say goodbye to their loved ones. I had to think Keep me in your heart for a while, the great Warren Zevon’s farewell song to his wife. I made it Place in your heart by. Anyone who hears it now usually thinks that I wrote it after my cancer diagnosis. But actually it’s my covid song. And then I did another one, and another one. She by Aznavour, Johnny Hallyday, Chrissie Hynde. I casually mentioned it to Axl Peleman, who has been by at least 30 times in recent years to record a few demos. But always very casual. We would see what happened to it.”
Grootaers with his team in the studio. “Working with those people, whom I have only just now gotten to know well, gives energy.” — © Margit Vantortelboom
When did you move into the studio?
“Last fall, not long after my surgery. Singing was still difficult then, and the fatigue had not gone away yet. Every day I disappeared for half an hour to lie down on the couch. But I had a great team around me. Axl, Stef Kamil Carlens, Joost Zweegers, David Poltrock, Mario Goossens and Ruben Block, the great backing singers Nina Babet and Chantal Kashala. Working together with those people, whom I have only just now gotten to know well, gives energy.”
“I don’t feel like wasting anything. Have you spent the last few years sitting in a room and waiting for a good football match to be on television? You must live, not exist”
Walter Grootaers
Singer
On the way here I thought of a part of your song Radio. “Suppose someone says: your end is here and now.”
“Then it is so.”
Real?
(thinks) “I would find it extremely difficult to say goodbye to my family. My wife, my children, my grandchildren. But I do think that I would choose an ending myself, because I don’t feel like wasting anything. Sitting in a room for the last seven years and waiting for a good football match to be on television? And saddle my children with the worries so that they can no longer live their lives? No. You must live, not exist. We already sang that with De Kreuners Pleasant get-together, one of our first songs.”
Speaking of which, when will we see you and the guys back on stage?
“We will discuss that soon. I don’t see it happening again this year. But as far as 2025 is concerned, the possibilities are still open. Halls in the autumn, festivals in the summer, … My preference is to visit the Lotto Arena three or four times in the spring. But first I want to enjoy four weeks of Mallorca, our regular destination, with my family this summer. That didn’t work last year. Time to make up for the damage.”
“I don’t see performing with De Kreuners happening again this year. But as far as 2025 is concerned, the possibilities are still open.”
INFO. ‘Every day’ and ‘Place in your heart’, the two new singles by Walter Grootaers, can now be listened to online.
