Alan Jackson appeared on The Today Show for an interview yesterday and opened up about a condition he has been dealing with for the last 10 years.
Alan told Jenna he was diagnosed with CMT, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a degenerative nerve condition that has been affecting his ability to walk, balance, and has been making it hard for him to perform on stage.
“I have this neuropathy and neurological disease,” Jackson said. “It’s genetic that I inherited from my daddy … There’s no cure for it, but it’s been affecting me for years. And it’s getting more and more obvious. And I know I’m stumbling around on stage. And now I’m having a little trouble balancing, even in front of the microphone, and so I just feel very uncomfortable.”
Alan said he thought fans deserved to know what’s going on and that he is opening up now because he has been having trouble performing on stage, he even joked that he doesn’t want people to think he’s been drinking, because he is not.
“It’s not going to kill me. It’s not deadly, but it’s related (to) muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease.”
CMT is a genetic disease that he inherited from his father, his grandmother had it, and his sister has also been suffering from it and doesn’t get around very good these days. Alan says he doesn’t want people to feel sorry for him, he has had a wonderful, beautiful life, but it is something that is going to affect his life, so he is unsure what the future holds.
Alan still wants to play, but he doesn’t know how possibly that will be in the future. It is not affecting his voice, so you can expect him to still write, sing, and record, you just might not see him on that stage much, if ever again. Time will tell.
Watch the interview below.
9-29-21
