'I'm Just Happy to Be Around!' Neil Diamond on His New Album and Living With Parkinson's

Brian in Mesa

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'I'm Just Happy to Be Around!' Neil Diamond on His New Album and Living With Parkinson's

https://parade.com/1145211/jimfarber/neil-diamond-parkinsons-disease/

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Three years ago, Neil Diamond shook the music world with the news that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and wouldn’t be touring anymore. But did that mean the end of his music? Not at all. “I’m working on new songs right now,” he says brightly, on a Zoom call with Parade from his home in the mountains of Colorado. “I always have a scrap of paper or a pad around to jot down ideas. Then, when I have more time, I develop them. It’s part of my life.”

The new songs he plans to record will extend one of the deepest, and most popular, catalogs in pop history, one that has given him gold or platinum albums in six consecutive decades. In the process, he has racked up no fewer than 13 Top 10 Billboard singles, from the rousing “Sweet Caroline” to the solemn “Holly Holy” and the No. 1 sing-along “Song Sung Blue.”

Diamond reworked those three songs, and 11 more of his hits, for his latest album, Classic Diamonds(available now), while at the same time modifying them, pairing his voice with grand arrangements by the London Symphony Orchestra. It was about time, he thinks, for those songs to get a new shine and a renewed sense of reflection. “I’m older and wiser,” says Diamond, 79. “I’m different.”

But the quality of his voice isn’t that different. Unlike Linda Ronstadt, whose experience with Parkinson’s made it impossible for her to sing, Diamond’s voice shows none of the effects of the neurodegenerative disorder. “In a strange way, I think I’m singing better than ever,” he says. “It’s probably because I’m not on the road singing full-out and tearing up my voice. So it’s in very good shape, which I didn’t expect.” Also, he adds, “I take my medication. I do my exercises and my workouts.”

As for the emotional impact of the disease, he says, flatly, “I don’t deal with it. I think I’m in denial or something. I feel fine. And it’s music—I’ve been doing it since I was a teenager. I don’t tense up when I get in front of a microphone. That’s when I loosen up and let it all hang out.”

Full article: https://parade.com/1145211/jimfarber/neil-diamond-parkinsons-disease/
 

puckhead

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Just goes to show that Diamonds are some of the strongest material on Earth. Keep on living your best life, Neil.
 

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