Barry Manilow gets candid about emotional impact of health scare

Barry Manilow has broken silence about his health scare.

As fans will know, the musician was diagnosed with lungs cancer in November.

Now, in a new chat with PEOPLE magazine, Manilow has spoken candidly about his illness and recovery.

"You just don't even think about [how fragile life is]. And suddenly, you have lung cancer. But I'm still here. I'm not all here; there's part of me that isnt here, they took out a part of me, and now I've got to figure out, ‘What do I do?’" Manilow began.

Reportedly, in November, he encountered a hip issue which led to a lung MRI and eventually to his cancer diagnosis. It is noteworthy that the doctor recommended the lung MRI when he learned the singer had recently weathered two bouts of bronchitis.

"If he hadn't done that, man ... He saved my life, because there's no symptoms for what I had. I could go on, nothing hurt, but they found the dot in my lung," he recalled.

"They called me and said, ‘Could be cancer.’ That's a bad word. ‘Not me. F*** you. I can't have cancer.’"

Four weeks after the initial discovery, Manilow underwent a lobectomy to remove the diseased portion of his lung.

The surgery was followed by a grueling seven-day stay in the ICU, an experience he describes as a "nightmare" that he is thankful to have largely blocked out.

"I don't remember it, thank goodness, because it was a nightmare," Manilow reflected on his hospital stay.

"I'm one of the lucky ones; I don't have to have chemo, radiation and all that stuff," he said in conclusion.