It was a day before his performance at the historic Uptown Theater in downtown Kansas City, and Billy Brimblecom Jr. was already on fire. Drumming is his life's reason and rhythm. It's been that way ever since he first heard "Wipe Out," that 1963 classic by The Surfers, on his dad's car radio. "The drum solo, very famous, comes on, and I start doing that on the dash, very poorly, and he's like, 'Oh you wanna play the drums? All right!'" Brimblecom said. "At that moment, I was like, 'Yes, I do!'"

But 20 years ago, a doctor gave him news that he feared might have him walking to a different beat altogether: "'Okay, there's a mass that's the size of a large apple in your ankle.' The last thing he said was, 'If it is a sarcoma, we have to remove the sarcoma, and everything that it is touchin

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