Justin Currie Describes Prospect of Ceasing Performances Due to Parkinson’s as ‘Quite Grim’

 

Del Amitri lead singer Justin Currie has shared his sombre outlook on the inevitable end to his performing career due to Parkinson’s disease.

The 59-year-old Scottish musician opened up about his diagnosis during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Tremolo programme, set to air on Sunday afternoon.

In a conversation on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg before the programme airs, Currie revealed, “I can’t play (music in) the way I would expect to, and I know it will get worse. At what rate, nobody knows.

“So I know I’m going to have to stop.

“The idea of having to stop, that’s quite grim,” Currie lamented.

“Whereas, formerly, people like me would never want to stop, you know. We’d want to be singing in a pub at the age of 80 or something, and being dragged off by our grandchildren or something in embarrassment.

“So the idea of having to stop, that’s quite grim.”

Reflecting on the impacts of the disease, the Glasgow-born artist mentioned, “I seem to have lost a bit of diaphragm control.”

He continued, “It’s already changed my personality in not necessarily negative ways.

“(With) any form of disability, you become aware of disability in general, and you become acutely aware of that line that disabled people have been saying for years – that there aren’t able-bodied people, there are just a lot of people who are not yet disabled.

“So I quite like that. I quite like the idea that we’re all going to go through some of these difficulties at some point in life.”

Currie added, “I think you do think you’re invulnerable until something proves you’re not.

“That ridiculous cliché, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’, that’s not true.

“If you lose a leg you are not strong. And I am not stronger for having Parkinson’s, believe you me.”

Del Amitri, formed in Glasgow in 1980, is celebrated for their song Nothing Ever Happens, which climbed to number 11 in the UK singles chart.

The band also boasts six albums that have landed in the top 10 of the UK albums chart.

Parkinson’s disease is identified as a condition in which parts of the brain deteriorate over many years, as detailed by the NHS website.

The NHS explains the condition, marked by involuntary shaking, slow movement, and stiff muscles, results from the loss of nerve cells in a part of the brain known as the substantia nigra.

Notable figures, including Back To The Future star Michael J Fox and Sir Billy Connolly, have also been diagnosed with the disease.

Justin Currie’s poignant interview with the BBC’s Tremolo programme is scheduled for broadcast on Radio 4 at 4.30pm on Sunday.