Morrissey being treated for cancer

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Morrissey has revealed he is being treated for cancer.

The 55-year-old musician detailed his diagnosis in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Morrissey has been in ill health for months and canceled nearly two dozen U.S. tour dates in June, but said he is feeling well and unconcerned with death.

"I have had four cancer-scrapings, but so what," he related. "If I die, I die. If I don't, then I don't. As I sit here today I feel very well ... I know I look quite bad in recent photographs, but I am afraid this is what illness does to the overall countenance. I will save relaxation for when I'm dead."

Morrissey came to fame as the frontman of The Smiths in the 1980s, and embarked on a solo career after the group broke up in 1987. He released four studio albums with The Smiths, and last debuted his 10th solo album, World Peace is None of Your Business, in July. The musician published an autobiography, Autobiography, in October 2013, and is currently working on his first novel.

"I will be delighted to see it in print next year, and I might have no reason to sing again," he shared. "I have reached the age where making music is meant to be over... as in finished with... so many classical composers were dead at 34."

Morrissey is currently on tour in Europe, and will perform in Madrid, Spain on Thursday.