Lou Rawls: ‘Don’t count me out’

Grammy-winning singer Lou Rawls has been diagnosed with cancer and is being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., his spokesman said Friday.

Rawls, 70, in an interview with the Arizona Republic, said he had received alternative and traditional medical treatments for lung cancer. He said he had quit his regular smoking habit 35 years ago.

The singer’s estranged wife, Nina, said during a marriage annulment hearing Thursday in Arizona that Rawls also had brain cancer.

“Don’t count me out, brother,” Rawls told the Arizona Republic from the hospital. “There’s been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing and they’re still jumpin’ and pumpin’.”

Rawls, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., has won three Grammy awards and has sold more than 40 million albums.