(Classic Rock) Paul Di'Anno says a "rugby ball-sized abscess" on his lungs turned out not to be cancer. The former Iron Maiden frontman, 58, is living in a care home in his home town of Salisbury, England, as he recovers from an operation to remove the non-malignant abscess.

He expects to be in care for up to eight weeks and says that he could have to wait six months for an urgent knee replacement operation. After an interview with his friend and fellow former Maiden singer Blaze Bayley was reported on this week, fans were worried that Di'Anno was battling cancer. But he insists that is not the case.

Di'Anno tells Classic Rock: "I collapsed at home after coming back from Argentina and a scan found a massive big black shadow on my lungs. I thought I was on my way out, but it turned out to be non-malignant.

"It was an abscess that was all infected and the size of a rugby ball. It turns out I've been living with this thing in me for the last few years. The doctors said it was an airborne thing that caused the infection and I could have picked it up anywhere.

"I had to go into recovery after the operation and rather than go back to my home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I stayed here in England and I'm now in a care home." Read more here.