Friday, January 04, 2013

Bobby Womack has early signs of Alzheimers

Photo: Rick Rycroft/AP/ The Telegraph
From Bobby Womack's Facebook page...

"With regards to the recent widespread news of Bobby Womack's diagnosis with signs of early Alzheimer’s, Mr. Womack would like to release the following statement.

"Thanks to all of my fans for their prayers and well wishes. I truly appreciate and can feel your love. With the support of many good doctors, my family, and all of my wonderful fans, I will continue to write and perform and bring the good music to the people for as long as I can."

– With much love, Bobby Womack."

From the LA Times... "The doctor says, 'You have signs of Alzheimer's,' " Womack told the BBC's Gilles Peterson in an interview on the latter's Radio 6 program. "It's not bad yet, but it's gonna get worse."

Womack, 68, admitted that he's having trouble remembering things, including the name of Damon Albarn, who co-produced "The Bravest Man in the Universe" with XL Recordings chief Richard Russell. At October's Q Awards in London -- where Womack won the award for best album -- he introduced the Blur/Gorillaz frontman as "Damon Osbourne." (The singer first collaborated with Albarn on the 2010 Gorillaz set "Plastic Beach.")

"That's so embarrassing," Womack said of the memory lapse. "Here's a guy I work with -- I would never belittle him like that."

In June last year he told Spin Magazine "I had prostate cancer. I had colon cancer. I had my lungs completely cave in. I had walking pneumonia twice and I'm a diabetic."

UPDATED: Womack does NOT have Alzheimers, see this interview from 6 Feb 2013...

"... I ask him about the Alzheimer's. His face creases into something like a grin. To cut a rambling story short, Womack says that he was becoming worried at occasionally forgetting lyrics. And after his coma, when he couldn't recognise his ex-wife and had lost 40 pounds, his concern about his memory loss deepened. So he mentioned Alzheimer's to a writer, "because I didn't understand it".

So, you don't have Alzheimer's? "No."

Great news, clearly. But his ex-wife "cussed me out. Regina said, 'Why would you tell people you had Alzheimer's? Now you'll never get bookings!'" he laughs. "I'm saying, 'Bookings? I don't care about no goddamned bookings! I'm alive!'"

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