Editing Bill Hicks (section)

==Illness and death==
On June 16, 1993, Hicks was diagnosed with [[pancreatic cancer]] that had spread to his liver.<ref name="hicks-lastword">{{cite web| first = Bill|last= Hicks| title = Last Word| url = http://www.billhicks.com/last-word.html| publisher= Bill Hicks| work=Bill Hicks family official site | access-date = June 5, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070521205803/http://www.billhicks.com/last-word.html |archive-date = May 21, 2007}}</ref>
He still toured and also recorded his album, ''Arizona Bay'', while receiving weekly chemotherapy. <ref>{{Cite news |last=MacInnes |first=Paul |date=2015-11-26 |title=Bill Hicks: do the legendary comic's jokes still stand up? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/nov/26/bill-hicks-dead-funny |access-date=2025-03-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 

Following his cancer diagnosis, Hicks often joked that any given performance could be his last.  The public, however, was unaware of his condition, and only a few close friends and family members knew of the disease.  He performed the final show of his career at [[Caroline's]] in New York on January 6, 1994; he moved back to his parents' house in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] shortly thereafter.{{cn|date=July 2024}} 

In his last weeks, Hicks re-read [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'',<ref> [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/a-brit-on-the-side-why-american-comic-bill-hicks-felt-most-at-home-in-the-uk-1950403.html "A Brit on the side: Why American comic Bill Hicks felt most at home in the UK"], ''The Independent'', 25 April 2010.</ref> and made telephone calls to friends to say goodbye before he stopped speaking on February 14, 1994.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Outhwaite|first1=Paul|url=http://billhicks.com/Bio.html|title=Bio|publisher=Arizona Production Company, Inc.|access-date=2016-03-03|archive-date=April 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408220210/http://billhicks.com/Bio.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died on February 26 at the age of 32,<ref name="bbc-tenyearson">{{Cite news
| date = February 23, 2004| last = O'Neill | first = Brendan| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040225020806/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3513475.stm | archive-date = February 25, 2004| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3513475.stm| title = Bill Hicks: Why the fuss, exactly?| work = BBC News| publisher = BBC| location = UK |access-date=2006-03-03}}</ref><ref name=theindependent>{{cite news | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-bill-hicks-1427205.html | title = Obituary: Bill Hicks | first = Rupert | last = Edwards | date = March 5, 1994 | work = [[The Independent]] | location = UK | access-date = December 7, 2012 | archive-date = June 21, 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130621123233/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-bill-hicks-1427205.html | url-status = dead }}</ref>  and was buried in the family grave plot in Magnolia Cemetery, [[Leakesville, Mississippi]].{{cn|date=July 2024}} 

In early 1995, Hicks's family released a brief essay he had written weeks before his death:
{{cquote|February 7, 1994 –

I was born William Melvin Hicks on December 16, 1961, in Valdosta, Georgia. Ugh. Melvin Hicks from Georgia. Yee Har! I already had gotten off to life on the wrong foot. I was always "awake," I guess you'd say. Some part of me clamoring for ''new'' insights and ''new'' ways to make the world a better place.

All of this came out years down the line, in my multitude of creative interests that are the tools I now bring to the Party. Writing, acting, music, comedy. A deep love of literature and books. Thank God for all the artists who've helped me. I'd read these words and off I went—dreaming my own imaginative dreams. Exercising them at will, eventually to form bands, comedy, more bands, movies, anything creative. This is the coin of the realm I use in my words – ''Vision''.

On June 16, 1993 I was diagnosed with having "liver cancer that had spread from the pancreas." One of life's weirdest and worst jokes imaginable. I'd been making such progress recently in my attitude, my career and realizing my dreams that it just stood me on my head for a while. "Why me!?" I would cry out, and "Why now!?"

Well, I know now there may never be any answers to those particular questions, but maybe in telling a little about myself, we can find some other answers to other questions. That might help our way down our own particular paths, towards realizing my dream of ''New'' Hope and ''New'' Happiness.

''Amen''

I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.<ref name="hicks-lastword"/>
}}