Chad Gilbert breaks silence on his painful cancer journey

Chad Gilbert has opened up about how he has been battling stage 4 adrenal cancer for the past five years. 

For those unaware, Gilbert was diagnosed with aggressive adrenocortical carcinoma in 2021, which grows on the outer layer of the adrenal gland.

In a talk with PEOPLE magazine, the 45-year-old American guitarist and record producer revealed he was not feeling well at the release party for his band New Found Glory's 12th album, Listen Up!, in February 2026.

He said the symptoms were quite different from what he had been experiencing for five years, as he quipped, "My left leg started to get really weak. And so I was like, 'I'll still play the CD release show. Just get me a chair, put me on stage.’”

In his Nashville performance, Gilbert “played all the songs” as well as released the record; however, things took a dark turn at his residence later that night.

"I was on my walker, walking up the steps to the back of my house, and I just ate it and fell,” he shared.

Upon reaching hospital, his doctors ran some tests and discovered three tumours in his brain, with one of a “walnut” size. To remove his brain tumours, the Hit or Miss crooner underwent surgery and radiation.

It is pertinent to mention that people with Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) or adrenocortical carcinoma carry “a much shorter lifespan” usually a six-month to a year lifespan after diagnosis but Chad Gilbert has already lived that period.