Camaraderie with her fellow patients got her through the worst. As part of her recovery, she’s made a commitment to giving her body the fuel it needs.īif underwent chemotherapy, a lumpectomy and radiation. Only after her year-long fight with breast cancer did she realize how unhealthy her eating habits had become. The results were plain to see: Bif shrank to a size 0. While her band gorged on pizza and steak, Bif ate side salads. Eventually, being vegan morphed into eating very little, because, on tour, options were limited. The progression began innocently enough Bif turned to veganism in her early 20s to alleviate stomach issues. Somewhere between the shows and daily life, the rock-star lifestyle took its toll. Since then, she’s recorded seven albums and performed alongside the likes of Billy Idol and Sheryl Crow. Bif sang with different bands until her manager, Peter Karroll, offered her a solo deal in 1994. And when the group required a sexier name, they figured adding Naked to the mix was a simple way to draw a crowd. She married the drummer at 18, and though the marriage lasted only six months, the music stuck. Bif dropped out of a theatre program at the University of Winnipeg to join a band. Fate: Cleaning lady at MGM.” Of course, she’s landed closer to the former than to the latter. In the quote accompanying her high school graduation photo, she wrote, “Destination: Actress. “He married a rock star,” she says, “and what he got was a cancer patient.”īif never actually aspired to be a rock star. Bif says she can’t pinpoint the final straw, but she knows that’s when the problems began. For her, the union-and its demise-will be forever linked to her fight with breast cancer, as she was diagnosed just one week after their honeymoon. Since her diagnosis in 2007, Bif has navigated one difficult turn after another: She confronted a long-held eating disorder and separated from her husband, Vancouver Sun sportswriter Ian Walker, in January 2011. And she is happy to chat with others who’ve been affected by the disease.

She is well-known, yes, but she’s also a breast cancer survivor. Other walkers sideline Bif-who also goes by her given name, Beth, and a handful of others, including B, Biffy and Bifita-with requests for pictures, a handshake, a few words. She started out with a group of friends, but when you’re a recognizable rocker it’s hard to keep up. On a sunny morning in early October, Bif is walking in Vancouver’s CIBC Run for the Cure. Beth Torbert, better known as Bif Naked, is busy shaking hands and kissing babies.

Biff naked