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But the veteran DJ has needed all his powers of positive thinking to get through the last few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been very difficult,\u201d he tells me in that familiar voice as warm as melting butter. \u201cI live with prostate cancer and suffered an aorta dissection in 2019 that nearly killed me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen my wife left, we went into Covid, I had to pause the cancer treatment\u2026It was a huge challenge. I got very low, but I never lost faith that I could somehow get through this. My greatest strength is my determination not to go under.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and suffered a tear in his main artery, the aorta, in May 2019, while out walking with a friend. \u201cBy the time I got home my chest felt like it was being crushed from both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rushed to intensive care, he wasn\u2019t expected to last the night, but he pulled through only for scans to reveal the cancer was back. Bob now has intravenous radiation treatment every two months and takes \u201ca fistful of pills\u201d every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got very frightened,\u201d he says, but was buoyed by calls from friends like Robert Plant and Johnnie Walker, and visits from Willie Nelson\u2019s Bafta-winning son Lukas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support from the public has been miraculous and heart-warming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miraculously, five months later he was back working at his usual pace. \u201cI could have pulled the duvet over my head and given up,\u201d he tells me. \u201cBut I will never do that. Every day is a celebration. I won\u2019t let anything defeat me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob, 77, is now an ambassador for the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust. \u201cWe think with education we could save 2,000 lives a year. We have received support from Health Secretary Steve Barclay to help us create information packs and took kits for hospitals and medical centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use my Instagram account to support others and say I understand, I really have been there.\u201d<\/p>\n
His condition was caused by stress hypertension and very high blood pressure. \u201cI must keep my blood pressure down and avoid stress situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Fall for more of the everyday magic – Ed Sheeran’s Autumn Variations<\/strong><\/p>\n But irrepressible Bob is currently halfway through The Songs The Beatles Gave Away \u2013 a national tour with author Colin Hall, custodian of John Lennon\u2019s childhood home \u2013 based on hits Lennon and McCartney donated to other artists and Colin\u2019s book of the same name.<\/p>\n The show includes the stories behind the numbers and Bob\u2019s rare archive interviews with both the Liverpool legends. The tour itself is leisurely and sedate. \u201cI\u2019m past the days of late-night partying and throwing TVs out the window,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cI have to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n Bob\u2019s anecdotes, from more than half a century of broadcasting, stretch from Led Zeppelin to Dylan-loving US President Jimmy Carter. He championed Bowie, co-founded Time Out magazine and befriended and holidayed with Marc Bolan and his wife June.<\/p>\n The son of a Welsh policeman, Robert Brinley Joseph Harris was born and raised in Northampton, but his life changed forever in 1957 when they holidayed in the Norfolk seaside town of Cromer.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the first time I heard music coming out of a jukebox. It was Paul Anka singing Diana. I was 11 and it literally changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n He bought that single, and never stopped. At one stage he had over 40,000 records at his home in Oxfordshire, but lost a lot of it in 2006 to \u201ca biblical storm\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my vinyl was in boxes on the floor and was ruined. Thankfully my favourites were safe, including a record John Peel gave me when we became friends, Forever Changes by Love.\u201d<\/p>\n Now his home studio \u2013 called Under The Apple Tree \u2013 houses more than 18,000 CDs.<\/p>\n His other childhood passion was rugby. Bob played at school and later at county level.<\/p>\n \u201cI did have a couple of concussions played but not the 25 people have said,\u201d he recalls. He played for the Midlands and dreamt of progressing to the England team, but rock\u2019 n\u2019roll changed all that.<\/p>\n We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n Harris left school under a cloud. A teacher had seen him drinking half a pint of shandy in a pub, and the headmaster wanted to cane him.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no way that was going to happen. I was so angry I cycled home. I thought my dad would hit the roof, but he just said \u2018So what do you do now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Bob told him he was thinking about going to London and getting into music. His father wanted him to become a police cadet, saying \u201cGive it everything for 18 months and I\u2019ll back you in whatever you want to do\u201d.<\/p>\n He did, but at 19 Harris moved to London and immersed himself in the growing sixties counterculture. He met Tony Elliott and launched Time Out<\/i> as a crudely printed listings magazine, named after a Dave Brubeck album.<\/p>\n He interviewed John Peel who was so impressed by his musical knowledge that he invited him to host his radio show while he was away.<\/p>\n Harris landed his own BBC radio show, Sounds Of The 70s<\/i>, in 1970. \u201cMy Dad came along and got chatting to Terry Wogan. Dad asked him if there was any security with the job. Terry replied, \u2018Put it this way, I have a contract that lasts 13 weeks\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Fifty-three years later, Bob now hosts Radio 2\u2019s The Country with Bob Harris.<\/p>\n Pirate radio, especially Peel\u2019s Perfumed Garden on Radio London, was his biggest influence. \u201cI wanted to create that kind of one-to-one intimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1972, he took over as host of BBC2\u2019s The Old Grey Whistle Test, a TV platform designed as the antidote to the disposable chart hits on Top Of The Pops.<\/p>\n \u201cProducer Mike Appleton devised Whistle Test and got a rubber stamp from David Attenborough who was controller at the time. We had no budget but complete creative freedom. We had artists like James Taylor, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Carly Simon. It was Bob Marley\u2019s first UK TV appearance.\u201d And Attenborough turned a blind eye to the clouds of Ganja enveloping the Wailers\u2026<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> Chaos often reigned. Keith Richards downed a bottle of Jack Daniels during a TV interview and remained lucid.<\/p>\n At its height, the show attracted five and a half million viewers.<\/p>\n When John Lennon appeared on it, he asked to be paid in biscuits. Bob had bumped into his old friend Reg, at a London launch party in 1974. Reg, by now known by his stage name Elton John, told him he was off to New York, to do a few dates at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did ten nights! He said, \u2018Don\u2019t tell anyone, but I think John Lennon might be joining me on stage.\u2019 I said when you see John tell him we\u2019d love to do something with him\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Lennon called their production office. He wasn\u2019t interested in being paid, but Appleton insisted. \u201cHe said, \u2018It\u2019s the BBC, we have contractually to offer you a fee, it\u2019s \u00a315.\u2019 So John said to spend it on Huntley & Palmers Chocolate Olivers, because he couldn\u2019t get them in the States.\u201d<\/p>\n Bob went to the USA for Radio 1 in 1974, interviewing the Beach Boys on Santa Monica beach and hanging out with Alice Cooper.<\/p>\n He\u2019d return every summer finding new bands to rave about \u2013 Little Feat, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and Bruce Springsteen. \u201cI saw him at the Roxy in 1975.\u201d<\/p>\n Bob famously befriended Led Zeppelin and recalls the day guitarist Jimmy Page had a Harley Davidson delivered to the sixth floor of their hotel so he could ride it down the corridors at 4am.<\/p>\n Then there was the band\u2019s 1974 Halloween Party at Chislehurst Caves in Kent when 200 people watched George Melly play jazz dressed as a nun and horror films were projected onto the walls\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAfter he came off, naked women started dancing in open coffins in red jelly that looked like blood\u2026it was a different time.\u201d<\/p>\n The rock\u2019n\u2019roll hedonism gave way to the puritanical punk explosion. Somehow this likeable man became punk rock\u2019s public enemy. In 1977, he was attacked by Sid Vicious in London\u2019s Speakeasy Club. Bob was saved by some of Procol Harum\u2019s roadies but his friend was hit by a bottle and had to be rushed to hospital.<\/p>\n Harris realised he\u2019d become a \u201chuman coconut shy\u201d a target for limitless bile. Worried he\u2019d become \u201cthe Ken Barlow of rock\u201d, he retreated from the limelight to local radio to let the dust settle.<\/p>\n Bob bears no grudge. \u201cMy heart went out to John Lydon when he spoke about his late wife\u2019s dementia,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was so touching. Now is the time to put all that to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n Ironically, although derided as \u201can old fart\u201d Bob Harris has always supported new talent, famously championing David Bowie who he took with him when he DJ\u2019d at a medical college gig in east London in 1968. Bob played Motown and Stax floor-fillers, David sat on the stage and played his unreleased song, Space Oddity. He was booed, a glass was thrown and students poured beer all over him.<\/p>\n \u201cI was incensed. I stormed to the mic and told them he\u2019s going to be a star.\u201d<\/p>\n He was right then, and he was right about Emmylou Harris, Carrie Underwood, and Kacey Musgrave too. Today Bob backs new country acts like The Shires and Ward Thomas who can be seen performing on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n Three-times-married Bob has eight children from four relationships and eight grandchildren.<\/p>\n Medical issues aside, his biggest crisis was bankruptcy \u2013 a result of the property crash.<\/p>\n So although he dreams of following the England cricket team \u201cto the sunshine\u201d, he won\u2019t ever retire.<\/p>\n \u201cI am still paying rent every month. When bankruptcy disfigured our lives for ten years, we had to find somewhere quickly, so we rented.<\/p>\n \u201cI literally have to work to stay in the house I love, and I do love it. Last weekend, Annie Keating, a lovely artist came and played a few songs for us on the lawn. I had 30 people here, a barrel of beer, my son Ben a chef did a picnic\u2026it was lovely. Sunshine, family, friends, music\u2026perfect,<\/p>\n \u201cSo I have no intention of retiring. I\u2019ll go on working till I walk on stage and that\u2019ll be it. What else would I do? What else could I do?\u201d<\/p>\n *Bob Harris & Colin Hall present The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, touring until May 2024, details at<\/i>\u00a0bobharris.org<\/i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Colin Hall\u2019s book of the same name is out now.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/79\/590x\/secondary\/4999179.jpg?r=1696672223779\")
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