I would appreciate some of DU's good vibes or

[highplainsdem]

69. A bit of news, and a CBS video about another musician with ALS.

Last edited Wed Oct 26, 2022, 11:18 AM - Edit history (1)

The news is that George gave some help to his friend and Vreemde Kostgangers bandmate Boudewijn de Groot for Boudewijn's new album, which will be released next month. I haven't found enough details to know exactly how much help George gave Boudewijn, a folksinger and social critic who in the '60s and '70s was the Dutch equivalent of Bob Dylan, and whose new album's debut single is about damage we've done to the planet. (I don't know if George played on that track, haven't been able to find those details yet. EDITING: I've added the video at the end of this message.) I'm still hoping to hear that the final VK album will be mixed and released, a project George was talking hopefully about months ago.

The main reason I'm posting today is that CBS's morning news show had a story on John Driskell Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band, who's also fighting ALS. I'd posted a link to an article about him in reply 48 above, in response to a post from AZSkiffyGeek. As I said there, Hopkins was diagnosed a year earlier than George but has seen the disease progress more slowly, possibly because he's more than twenty years younger than George.

This is a very touching story on the challenges he's facing, and the effect on his family:

I was especially touched to see him recording messages he'll be able to play for his daughters later, if he reaches the point where he can't talk.

Nothing I've read or heard has provided much information on how George's family is coping. His wife is a year older than he is (she was an older woman of 15 when they fell in love). His son is 40 and has at least one child, but I have no idea where he lives. His daughter is 36 and was teaching at a school not far from George's home in Belgium, so probably she's helping him now (just a guess; I have a cousin who gave up teaching to take care of her mom). His daughter provided some vocals for George's last album with Frank Carillo.

Seeing John Driskell Hopkins talking about his family in that CBS story this morning was a wrenching reminder of the extra pain for people with ALS as they watch the effect, the years-long effect, on their families, and wish they weren't putting them through this.


As long as I'm posting a new message here, I want to include the video for Boudewijn de Groot's new single, "Aarde" (Earth). Again, I don't know if George helped with this particular track.