Charles Kelley, one of the two lead singers of the country music group Lady A, has revealed that he is battling a rare form of cancer.
Kelley, 45, shared the news in an Instagram video on Tuesday, September 29, sitting next to his wife, Cassie McConnell.
“I had a few random rib fractures, which prompted my doctor to give me several different blood tests. One of the last blood tests we did, they found a blood cancer called multiple myeloma, and it’s rare,” Kelley said.
There is currently no cure for multiple myeloma, but it can be successfully managed with treatment. According to the International Myeloma Foundation, the average survival rate after diagnosis now exceeds 10 years. Thanks to new treatments introduced over the past decade, myeloma patients are living longer and achieving long-term remissions.
Kelley feels optimistic about improved treatment options.
“I’m young, I feel healthy and treatments, I will say, have advanced so much, even in the last five years, that life expectancy is far beyond what it was,” he said. “I’m really hopeful. I really am.”
Kelley wanted to speak openly about her cancer diagnosis “in the same spirit that we shared my sobriety journey.” The country star has been sober since 2022.
“Just getting these things off your chest is so liberating and it takes a little power away from you,” he explained. “We wanted you all to know what’s going on. We’re going to get through this. In sobriety, it’s a matter of one day at a time and we’re not in control. So that’s how we look at it.”
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Kelley expressed her desire to “keep working,” noting that Lady A would be on tour in December. He said his treatment for the next six months would not be “super invasive”.
“Right now I feel good,” he said. “I need to be happy and do what I love to do and spend as much time as possible with my family.”
Kelley and McConnell, who married in 2009, share two sons: Ward, 10, and Archer, 1. McConnell told Kelley’s Instagram followers that she was “grateful” for her husband’s “great care team.”
Kelley also has support from her Lady A bandmates, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood.
“The strongest duo out there! I love you so much! You’ve got this!” Scott commented.
“I cover you in prayer, brother. I love you all. We are all here for you!” Haywood added.
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