Songwriter Neil Diamond has opened up about his struggle after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January 2018. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Diamond admitted he had only recently accepted the diagnosis, saying he was in denial for the first year after he was given the news by his doctor.
“When the doctor told me what it was, I was just not ready to accept it,” he told CBS. “I said, ‘Oh, OK, I’ll see you whenever you want to see me, but I have work to do, so I’ll see you later.’”
Neil Diamond: ‘Sweet Caroline’
“I’m still doing it and I don’t like it,” he continued. “OK, so this is the hand that God’s given me and I have to make the best of it. And so I am.”
Diamond retired from touring as a result of the diagnosis, and cancelled his scheduled Australian tour. He’s made rare public appearances since then – most recently at the December premiere of the Broadway musical dedicated to his life and music, A Broadway Noise.
Diamond told CBS that he’d only really accepted his illness “in the last few weeks”. “Somehow, a calm has moved in and the hurricane of my life and things have gotten very quiet,” he explained. “And I like it. I find that I like myself better. I’m easier on people. I’m easier on myself… and the beat goes on and it will go on long after I’m gone.”
The ‘Sweet Caroline’ songwriter revealed he can still sing, and often spends time in his recording studio in Los Angeles. “I’ve been doing it for 50 years and I enjoy it. I feel good [when I sing]. It’s like all the systems of my mind and my body are working as one,” he said.
Diamond told the interviewer that he’d come to accept the limitations that the illness places on him. “There’s no cure, there’s no getting away from it. You can’t just say, OK, enough already, let’s get back to life. It doesn’t work like that,” he said.
“I just have to take life as it comes to me, enjoy it, be thankful that I had it.”
You can watch the full interview over here.
Further Reading
Neil Diamond Makes Rare Public Appearance To Sing ‘Sweet Caroline’
Neil Diamond Cancels 2018 Australian Tour, Retires From Touring Altogether
John Farnham Is Being Treated for a Respiratory Infection in Hospital
