Haines has enjoyed a full summer of shows following the release of 2024 album Notes, but at many points over the past 10 years, it had looked like his music days might have been behind him.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Haines said he was no longer hung up on other people’s perceptions of him after what he said was a “harrowing” experience.
“I was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017,” he told Cowan. “My son was only 2 and three-quarter years old. It was very sudden.
“I had experienced some discomfort in my throat for a few months and went to my GP… A doctor took me aside and, aware of who I was in my music, said ‘Unfortunately, Nathan, we’ve found a very large tumour in your throat.’”
A month later, after countless tests, Haines was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer.
“That was it. My life pretty much changed overnight. I was in hospital for three months, I had several operations, I lost the ability to swallow, to eat. I had to eat through a tube in my nose. It was pretty harrowing.
“Looking back on it, you think, what’s the worst thing that could happen in my life? The worst thing for me would be to lose the ability to play and to lose all my income. And that sort of happened.”
After months of radiotherapy and surgery, Haines was declared cancer-free.
But the cancer diagnosis had come two years into Haines’ sobriety journey, which he said came as a relief at the time: “ I went, ‘Oh, great, I don’t have to go to those boring AA meetings anymore’ and I started drinking again”.
However, it quickly became a toxic addiction again, and after a year back on the booze, he decided to give it up for good.
“I got back into the programme, and I am six years [sober] this month.
“I think the whole process of getting cancer and then thinking ‘I can drink responsibly’ and then deciding that I couldn’t and getting back into AA, doing the steps with my sponsors, it was incredible.
Jazz musician Nathan Haines.
“It allowed me to look at my life, to look at the mistakes I’d made, and to try and make amends with those people and really look at my life and go, ‘Okay, how am I going to turn those things into positives? How am I going to move forward in my life?’”
Haines said he now felt more creative in the wake of his experiences over the past decade.
“Hopefully I’ve left ego behind. I’ve left behind worrying about what other people think about me. I’ve been able to leave a lot of those things behind and really get to the nub and the gist of why I’m here and what I’m good at and then just get down to the work.
“The work is really important to me and the journey is much more important to me than the outcome.
“Now I’ve got so much more music out there than I’ve ever had in my life.”
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
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