ARTICLE: Guitarist Won't Let Parkinson's Rob Him Of His Rocker Spirit (Jimmy Nalls)
Tuesday, 04/13/04
By TIM GHIANNI
Senior Writer
A finger on his left hand jerks to a frozen point. His leg kicks toward the ceiling. The guitar player whose smooth
blues vibrato helped flavor Southern rock twists violently in his chair, staring, momentarily, at the fish tank beside
him.
Jimmy Nalls' wife, Minni, hurries to his side and helps prop him squarely in his chair. The battle with Parkinson's
Disease is not one that the guitarist faces alone.
''I've been blessed,'' he says after recovering from his twitching. ''This woman deserves all the credit.''
''We've been blessed,'' insists his caregiver. ''We've got a lot of good friends.''
Struggling to fill a pipe with tobacco, Nalls recalls a time, when as a member of Sea Level, he was a whirling dervish
on stage, a man in command of his body and of his guitar.
''I really moved,'' he says, after finally getting the lighter to ignite the smoke. ''They used to give me the whole
center of the stage. Back then, I used to cover a lot of territory, not only with the guitar, but also on my feet.''
His voice smiles, though his face does not. In fact, sometimes he loses the fight to keep his face from becoming
distorted, his eyes staring off into nowhere. Or everywhere.
A few minutes earlier, he was helped down the stairs of his Priest Lake area home and guided to his chair. Sometimes he
needs a walker. Sometimes he can stand and step on his own. Other times, he admits, he can scarcely get up from his
bed.
Part of the curse of Parkinson's is its unpredictability.
''They say only about 1% of the people who have it inherit it,'' he says. ''My mother died of it.'' Back when Nalls was
a successful road dog, Minni prepared for her current situation by caring for her husband's mom.
The guitar player, who had watched his mom deteriorate and die, learned of life's cruel path ''about a week before
Christmas 1994. Some kind of Christmas present, huh?''
Since that diagnosis, Nalls has battled the disease as aggressively as possible. Now two remote-controlled neuro-
stimulators are implanted in his skull to help control the wretched impulses (''See these wires,'' he says, tracing his
finger over his balding head). He also gobbles about $1,000 worth of medication a month.
''We have insurance, but it doesn't cover all of it,'' he says, softly. Because of those expenses, some of his friends,
rock and country heavy-hitters such as Bonnie Bramlett, Lee Roy Parnell, Delbert McClinton and T. Graham Brown are
coming together for a benefit concert Thursday at 3rd & Lindsley.
It's the second such concert. The first was a few years ago, when Nalls and his family and friends first began to be
fully aware of his disease's severity.
''The only thing I had at first was a little glitch in my left hand,'' Nalls says. ''Everybody said I was OK. But,
since my mother had it, I knew in my heart of hearts that I did, too.
''I began losing my balance on stage. There were the little things. I really knew two years before I was diagnosed I
had it.''
The realization that he probably had the disease came while he was playing 200 or 300 shows a year with T. Graham
Brown. ''I noticed that I couldn't even roll over in the bunk I had on the bus.''
In addition to beginning available treatments, he also enrolled in a class to learn how to produce recordings, skills
that now he is able to use in his basement studio.
''We began to prepare for the future rather than look back,'' Minni says. ''We have faith. We have friends.''
''All I can pray for is some kind of cure,'' Nalls says.
There is no doubt that the first thing he would do is play the guitar the way he used to play it, back when his honey
vibrato was equal parts Hendrix and Stevie Ray.
''My dad was a guitar player. His dad was a guitar player. My uncle was a guitar player. I was destined to be a guitar
player,'' he says.
The diagnosis carried a sucker punch that Nalls, now 52, still feels. ''I told the doctors, 'I'm a guitar player' and
they said, 'You will never play the guitar again, at least not like you used to.' ''
The determined rock guitarist grips his instrument. ''Anybody here got a pick?'' he asks.
For a time, focused and calm, he begins to strum gently.
Tears stream down Minni's face as she watches her husband wage war within his own body.
''She's my rock,'' Nalls says. ''And I have my faith in God. There are days when I have severe shouting matches with
God. But I'm sure he'd rather you do that than forget him.''
Nalls admits he's not sure he's up to making it to the benefit. For one thing, he isn't particularly keen on appearing
in public in a wheelchair. He also has a diminishing amount of time when he feels capable of moving about at all.
''My window for feeling good used to close at 7. Now it closes at 4.''
His head jerks toward the fish tank again. Eyes frozen to his left, he recalls a guitar player's survival technique,
one that also was employed by an old cohort, Chet Atkins, who suffered similarly because of surgery to battle cancer's
attack on his brain.
''I sleep with my Stratocaster next to my head,'' Nalls says. ''I'll be lying in bed some nights and I'll get it.''
Illuminated by moonlight rather than spotlight, he lies there, clutching that instrument. He remembers the wild-eyed
young man with the flowing mane of hair who leaped about the stage filling arenas with that heart-lifting, milky tone.
The notes, you see, remain in his brain. He just can't coax them all the way to his fingers.
''It's such a wonderful feeling to hold that guitar. I hold it like a little baby.''
To learn more
For information about Parkinson's Disease, contact Caryn Crenshaw at the American Parkinson Disease Association's
Middle Tennessee chapter at Centennial Medical Center, 342-4635 or 1-800-493-2842. There are numerous Internet
resources, including http://www.apdaparkinson.org
Who is Jimmy Nalls?
The now Nashville-based guitarist hit the big time with Sea Level. He was a charter member of the band formed by Chuck
Leavell, who in addition to continuing as a session keyboard ace also is band leader for The Rolling Stones.
Nalls' first recording experience dates back to the early 1970s, when he was recruited to work with Noel Paul Stookey
(of Peter, Paul & Mary). Nalls periodically has reunited on projects with Stookey.
Nalls also spent time as lead guitarist with The Nighthawks blues band.
His job as a staff guitar player for Capricorn in Macon, Ga., had him recording with just about ''everybody who came
through'' from the early 1970s until the 1980s.
Folks he has recorded with, in Macon or elsewhere, include Bill Anderson, Gregg Allman, Bonnie Bramlett, Doug Kershaw,
Jack Pearson, Alex Taylor, Livingston Taylor and Bobby Whitlock.
He's toured with the likes of Dr. John, B.J. Thomas and T. Graham Brown.
Nalls' solo album, Ain't No Stranger, includes guest appearances by Mike Henderson, Lee Roy Parnell, Brown and Jack
Pearson.
James Albert Nalls III and his wife, Patricia (aka Minni), have been together for 30 years. They have two children,
Jennifer Amanda Nalls, 24, and James A. Nalls IV (aka Buddy, which was the nickname of the guitarist's father), 19.
Getting there
The Jimmy Nalls Benefit Concert will be at 8 p.m. Thursday at 3rd & Lindsley, 818 Third Ave. S. A $25 donation will be
accepted at the door. Performers will include Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Bramlett, Jimmy Hall, Lee Roy Parnell, T.
Graham Brown, Jack Pearson, JoJo Herman (of Widespread Panic), Gary Nicholson, Dave Pomeroy, Buddy Greene, Matt
Chambers, Brenda Broadstreet, Gregg Wetzel and Dave Duncan. Details: 259-9891.
You can reach Tim Ghianni, a senior writer and columnist at The Tennessean, at 259-8048 or at [log in to unmask]
SOURCE: The Tennessean, TN
http://tinyurl.com/34z4c
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