Rod Stewart experienced a chilling moment of fear after receiving a shocking health diagnosis that left his palms feeling icy.

Rod Stewart has shared a chilling account of a health scare that left him feeling "fearful" and "vulnerable." In his 2012 memoir, Rod: The Autobiography, the Maggie May crooner detailed how a routine check-up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles took a terrifying turn.

Despite feeling as "fit as a butcher's dog," Rod was called into the doctor's office after tests revealed an anomaly on his thyroid gland. Rod penned: "The following day, I went back to the hospital and underwent a biopsy. Under a local anesthetic, part of the affected area was removed using a needle and taken away for analysis."

A phone call the next day delivered the chilling news: "The results of the tests indicated that the 'something' on my thyroid gland was a malignant growth: cancer."

Rod admitted that hearing this kind of news can be quite unsettling, revealing that he felt more "fearful" and "vulnerable" than ever in his life.

Just two days later, he was back in the hospital for surgery, checking in under the pseudonym "Billy Potts" - a nod to his dogs' names - to dodge the media. He disclosed that the four-hour operation brought the surgeon's knife perilously close to his vocal cords, meaning "any slip" could have ended his singing career, reports the Daily Record.

The procedure went well, and the legendary vocalist avoided chemotherapy, ensuring that his trademark hairstyle remained intact. Displaying his usual sense of humor, he quipped that going bald would pose a career-threatening dilemma "second only" to the loss of his singing ability.

In a 2021 episode of the UK talk show Loose Women, Rod revealed that he had faced issues with voice loss. He acknowledged that the carefree days of partying all night, drinking, and living wildly without consequences for his voice are behind him, and that he now needs to take measures to "protect" it.

Looking back on his health scare, he remarked: "I experienced a brief episode of thyroid cancer, but it was resolved in just 10 minutes. I don't want to give the impression that I battled cancer for an extended period. It was quite straightforward to eliminate, though I did completely lose my voice."