John Driskell Hopkins Mediapunch/Shutterstock
Musician John Driskell Hopkins, who plays bass in the Zac Brown Band, has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) — also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
“I have tough news to share,” Hopkins, 51, said in a Friday, May 20, Instagram video, standing beside his bandmates. “Over the past several years, I’ve noticed some balance issues and some stiffness in my hands.”
He continued: “After careful analysis by some of the country’s top neurologists, I’ve been diagnosed with ALS. My symptoms have been slow to improve since the beginning. We expect them to continue to progress slowly going forward. God willing, I plan to be rocking with these amazing people for many years to come.”
The Texas native, who was a founding member, has since founded the Hop on a Cure foundation in an effort to find a cure.
“The technology and research around ALS treatments has been advancing, but we still don’t have a cure. Thanks so much for your prayers and helping us cure ALS,” lead singer Zac BrownExplained in the Friday video on social media.
According to the Mayo Clinic ALS can be described as a progressive nervous system disease. It affects nerve cells in your brain and spinal chord, causing loss or control. Individual cases will have different symptoms, but the general symptoms are muscle weakness that spreads and gets worse.
The Zac Brown Band features Zac Brown, Jimmy De Martini and John Driskell Hopkins. Clay Cook and Matt Mangano also perform. Michele Eve Sandberg/Shutterstock
Hopkins — who shares three daughters with wife Jennifer Hopkins — is currently performing with the band on their “Out in the Middle” tour. (The Zac Brown Band’s members also include Coy Bowles, Clay Cook, Daniel De Los Reyes, Jimmy De Martini, Chris Fryar Matt Mangano.)
“Sometimes you see people get into a frenzy like that, they get so excited they can’t stay in their own seat,” the “Chicken Fried” performer told Taste of Country in a September 2012 interview about performing with the Zac Brown Band. “One of my favorite things to watch is when somebody in the crowd is singing along to a song they’ve never heard: I love that!”
He added at the time: “It’s seven dudes who were all athletes. There’s a lot of testosterone up there [on stage]. We’re accustomed to not winning a lot of awards at award shows and things like that and we’re able to shake off that we’re not considered in the middle of the political part of the industry and all of that. But yeah, when you get up to the Top 5 and all, you’re definitely gonna be interested. … We went from bar into radio, and country radio was so very embracing of our sound and of our songs that really made it a joy to cross over into the genre.”
