Parkinson’s disease is slowly taking away Michael J. Fox’s fine motor skills but the Back to the Future actor recently proved that it’s not even close to touching his spirit
During Fox’s annual benefit event for his foundation, he jammed out a slow version of “All Along the Watchtower” with Dave Matthews Band.
The fact that Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, can still wickedly riff on an electric guitar is inspirational, especially given the historically aggressive nature of the disease.
“I was diagnosed 25 years ago, and I was only supposed to work for another 10 years,” Fox recently told Haute Living.
“I was supposed to be pretty much disabled by now. I’m far from it. This is as bad as I get, and I can still go to the store and go marketing.”
The star-studded event, titled “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson’s: An Evening of Comedy & Music to Benefit The Michael J. Fox Foundation,” was co-chaired by Katie Couric and her husband John Molner, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Fox’s wife, Tracy Pollan. The event raised approximately $5.7 million.
“It’s something we’ve been doing since the beginning, having this gala, and it’s grown in amazing ways with the amount of people in the greater Parkinson’s community — and outside of it — who come out and support us,” Fox said before the event, which was held at Waldorf Astoria in New York City. “It’s humbling every year.”
For fans of Fox’s career, the sight of him on stage no doubt brings back memories of Marty McFly laying out “Johnny B. Goode” in front of enthusiastic 1950’s teens in Back to the Future and it’s not the first time that he’s brought on waves of nostalgia this year.
In July, he joined Coldplay in New Jersey where he delighted fans by helping out on renditions of the famous Chuck Berry song as well as the Penguins’ “Earth Angel,” which was also featured in the 1985 film.
Photo Credit: YouTube
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