Dying Guitarist Wilko Johnson Rocks Until the End Living has been full of surprises for Wilko Johnson. So has dying. Four decades in the rock 'n' roll trenches have brought the British guitarist obscurity and fame, followed by turmoil, more obscurity and rediscovery. Now the greatest rock star you may not have heard of - songwriter for rabble-rousing 1970s band Dr. Feelgood - is embarking on a farewell tour. Unlike some musical goodbyes, this one is permanent. Late last year, Johnson was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and told he had just months to live. He says he has never felt more alive. The 65-year-old musician says that in the weeks since his diagnosis, he's been unexpectedly happy - "In fact it amounted at times to euphoria." "I suddenly found myself in a position where nothing matters anymore," he said. I'm a miserable so-and-so normally ... I'd be worrying about the taxman or all the things that we worry about that get in the way of the real things. And suddenly it doesn't matter. All of that doesn't matter. You walk down the street and you feel intensely alive. You're 'Oh, look at that leaf!' You're looking around and you think, 'I'm alive. Ain't it amazing?' Johnson has said no to chemotherapy treatment that doctors say may prolong his life by a matter of months. He has responded to his diagnosis with a surge of creativity, playing gigs in Japan and planning a goodbye tour of Britain for March. He's even going back into the studio to record a new album. British musician and songwriter Wilko Johnson poses for portraits at his home in West Cliff on Sea, England, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. The greatest rock star you may not have heard of - songwriter for rabble-rousing 1970s band Dr. Feelgood - is embarking on a farewell tour. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) British musician and songwriter Wilko Johnson poses for portraits at his home in West Cliff on Sea, England, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Close "After getting this diagnosis, I suddenly find myself writing bloody songs again," said a relaxed and garrulous Johnson in an interview at his home, a modest two-story row house in a faded, windblown seaside town of Westcliff-On-Sea, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of London and just a few miles from where he grew up. I think there will be an album. It's going to be rough and ready, because we've got about three or four days and we're just going to go in and to bash it down. We're not going to twiddle with anything. Wilko Johnson - a play on John Wilkinson, the name he was born with in 1947 - is a mix of clown, curmudgeon, showman and scholar whose life is both inspiration and caution for would-be rock stars. An unlikely rocker who studied Anglo-Saxon literature and worked as a schoolteacher before joining Dr. Feelgood, he is a cult hero - more influential than famous, and cherished by his fans. Recently his following has grown to include viewers of HBO fantasy series "Game of Thrones," in which the sepulchral-looking Johnson appeared as silent executioner Ilyn Payne. "They said, all you've got to do is stand around and look menacing," said Johnson of his acting debut. Well, I can do that by the yard. Johnson's menacing stare was a memorable feature of Dr. Feelgood, which burst to fame in the early '70s, then blew apart - but not before energizing many of the musicians who went on to create Britain's punk explosion. At a time of flamboyant glam and indulgent prog rock, they were something different - scrappers in cheap suits, playing a then-unfashionable brand of blues and R&B. Video clips of the band performing tracks such as "Roxette" reveal the explosive chemistry of charismatic singer Lee Brilleaux's raw vocals and Johnson's choppy guitar style, rooster strut and thousand-yard glare. "We didn't look like the other bands around here - they were all wearing frocks and talking about going to Mars," Johnson said. We looked like kind of shoddy bank robbers.