As a founding member of Zac Brown Band, John Driskell Hopkins has spent the final 17 years rocking levels the world over.
However whereas on The Owl tour with the band in 2019, the musician seen one thing was off along with his bass taking part in — the very factor he’d devoted his life to.
“It wasn’t that I could not play anymore, it was that I could not play as quick,” Hopkins tells PEOPLE on this week’s subject, on newsstands Friday. “My guitar hand was failing me.”
He additionally seen that his speech slurred at instances, and he was having bother “scooting” round, as he describes it, on stage.
“I am not Justin Timberlake, however I am a rock and roll man and may dance fairly nicely,” says Hopkins, 51. “Leaping began to hassle me.”
Over the subsequent two years, Hopkins visited a number of neurologists and specialists searching for solutions. Lastly, in December 2021, simply days earlier than Christmas, medical doctors in Atlanta — the place Hopkins lives along with his spouse of 14 years, Jennifer, 50, and their three younger daughters — had him do an electromyography (EMG) take a look at to find out whether or not there was injury within the nerves that management his muscular tissues.
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Diana King John Driskell Hopkins
The outcomes of the take a look at decided a devastating analysis: Hopkins had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) — a degenerative illness that causes progressive paralysis of the muscular tissues accountable for chewing meals, talking and strolling. It will definitely results in full respiratory failure, normally inside 5 years.
“In my life, I have been scared, I have been indignant, I have been burdened,” says Hopkins. “However I do not know that I’ve ever actually felt nervousness till that day.”
When a subsequent EMG carried out on the ALS clinic at Massachusetts Common Hospital additionally decided Hopkins had ALS, “it was devastating,” says Jennifer. “In that first month, I spent loads of time in my closet and the bathe crying as a result of I did not need our daughters to see me that approach.”
Whereas Dr. Richard Lewis, an ALS specialist and the director of the Electromyography Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles who has not handled Hopkins, says ALS will be “comparatively speedy” with a median three to four-year development, folks may also “dwell 10 to fifteen years with ALS.”
Within the 5 months since his preliminary analysis, Hopkins has made his peace with the unknown forward of him.
“Nobody is aware of what the situation shall be like going ahead, so we will not sit round and cry about it,” says Hopkins.
Although he is dealing with weak spot and stability points, Hopkins has in any other case managed to take care of a demanding schedule since his analysis. On April 22, he joined Zac Brown Band on their seven-month “Out In The Center” tour.
“I am singing in addition to I’ve ever sung, and I used to be by no means a great participant,” he says jokingly. “The band will again me up on that. Once I informed them about my analysis on a Zoom name, Zac stated, ‘Are you making all this up since you’re a s—ty banjo participant?'”
Ethan Miller/Getty John Driskell Hopkins
On Friday, Hopkins and Jennifer additionally launched Hop On a Remedy, a basis devoted to elevating funds to discover a treatment for ALS, which roughly 5,000 persons are identified with annually.
“Our imaginative and prescient is evident,” says Hopkins. “We have to do every part we are able to to generate funds to treatment ALS.”
Provides Jennifer: “We need to stop anyone else from being informed they’ve ALS and there is nothing that may be carried out.”
Raised in Gainesville, Georgia, the son of mother Joan, a trainer, and pa Ralph, a radiologist, Hopkins began singing in church choirs and taking part in piano and guitar as a child. He graduated from Florida State College with a level on the whole theater in 1993, and in 1998, he met Zac Brown, then an aspiring singer, whereas internet hosting an open mic night time at a neighborhood bar.
The 2 stayed shut, and in 2005, Hopkins joined Zac Brown Band, whose breakthrough hit “Rooster Fried” got here in 2008. Since then, Hopkins has spent loads of time on the street with the band, residing “on beer and pizza,” he says.
So, when he first began experiencing signs, he chalked it as much as age. “At 48, you simply say, ‘Ah, I can not leap anymore,'” he says. However when his signs worsened, Jennifer says they knew they needed to “dig deeper.”
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Since his analysis, Hopkins has adopted a gluten and dairy-free food plan — minus the piece of strawberry shortcake on his birthday on Might 3. “You bought to be cheap!” he says.
Alongside the “38 capsules” he takes each day — a mixture of dietary supplements and conventional ALS medicines — he additionally follows a naturopathic routine that features natural teas, and he does stretching and ab exercises each day.
“We are saying, ‘If it is not going to harm, let’s strive it,'” says Hopkins, including with amusing, “Regardless of how a lot naturopathic cleaning I do, I am at all times going to be filled with crap!”
That humorousness has confirmed important, too.
“When he is having a second, I’ve the power to raise him,” says Jennifer. “And once I’m having a second, he has the power to make me snicker. We cling to that.”
Attempting to maintain life as regular as doable has been necessary to Hopkins and Jennifer, particularly once they’re at residence with their three daughters, Sarah Grace, 13, and twins Lily Religion and Margaret Hope, 10.
“They’re younger, so they do not know the gravity of this illness but, which is ok for us proper now,” says Jennifer, who determined with Hopkins to attend till after Christmas Day 2021 to inform the ladies about what was occurring.
Whereas out taking part in volleyball of their neighborhood, Hopkins tripped on some damaged pavement, and he used it as a segue to inform them that his stability was off as a result of he has ALS.
“Grace requested, ‘May you die?’ I stated, ‘Sure.’ Religion stated, ‘May you be in a wheelchair?’ I stated, ‘Sure.’ Hope began crying,” Hopkins recollects. “They did not fairly perceive it, and so they nonetheless do not, actually. However neither will we.”
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For now, Hopkins hopes to proceed doing what he does finest: making music.
“One of many stunning issues about my situation, if God-willing it stays the best way it’s for a few years, is I’ve the power and the presence to make a huge impact,” says Hopkins, who’s at present engaged on his fourth Christmas document. “I am able to go. I can nonetheless play, I can nonetheless sing, I can nonetheless make information — and I need to do all that. I am attempting to document every part I can within the occasion that at some point I won’t be capable to.”
He is additionally discovered new pleasure within the on a regular basis moments with Jennifer and their daughters.
“A math drawback that your 10-year-old brings you will be simply as thrilling as a giant trip,” he says. “I am attempting to do not forget that.”
As he seems to the long run, Hopkins hasn’t misplaced religion.
“I am able to combat this illness,” he says. “I need to present my women what a warrior their dad is.”
For all the main points on John Driskell Hopkins’ combat in opposition to ALS, decide up the most recent subject of PEOPLE, on newsstands in all places Friday.
