Back in November, King Diamond had triple-bypass heart surgery performed on him. His wife Livia Zita claimed that the Mercyful Fate and solo vocalist was recovering well shortly after the procedure. But today, Livia confirmed that Diamond’s health is strongly improving and that he finished cardiac rehabilitation this past Friday (March 11).

In a new statement, Livia said the following:

“King has just finished his Cardiac Rehabilitation program this past Friday, and graduated with flying colors. Thanks to the wonderful people at the rehab center, his exercise regimen helpe him gain a lot of muscle, and start on the road of building up good endurance. We will start regular exercises now to get the endurance up to nice levels. The examinations by his heart surgeon and cardiologist revealed that his health is steadily improving, and they all expect him to feel better than ever, 15 years younger than he really is.

I am immensely proud of what he has achieved in these short 3 months, stopped smoking entirely, changed diet and doing regular exercise among other things. I cannot say anything certain about when he will be back working on King Diamond related things, but he is looking forward to finishing the DVDs eventually, and he is most certainly not stopping music. I hope this information was helpful, I can honestly say that his progress has been nothing short of amazing. He is the strongest person I know. He would also like to extend his huge gratitude to all of you, for your absolutely amazing support. It has really meant a lot to him.”

Livia also provided the picture above of Diamond with his program “graduation” certificate. It’s fantastic news to hear that Diamond’s condition is improving. We hope that his health continues to improve. But now to celebrate this good news, we’d like to share with the most unlikely tribute to the vocalist: The Roots performing a snippet of “Abigail” on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmweKy-RCMI[/youtube]