{"id":281135,"date":"2025-11-09T11:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T11:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/281135\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T11:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T11:15:11","slug":"country-music-star-battling-incurable-disease-has-hit-a-rough-patch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/281135\/","title":{"rendered":"Country music star battling incurable disease has \u2018hit a rough patch\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Country music star Clay Walker has been open with fans about his long battle with multiple sclerosis, and in a new interview with People Magazine<\/a> he has revealed that he has had a tough year dealing with the disease.<\/p>\n

Walker, 56, made headlines earlier this year when he was forced to cancel a show in Hot Springs, Arkansas to undergo a procedure to help his battle against MS.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the year, I noticed I was having a lot of difficulty with balance and walking, and it really started to worry me,\u201d Walker told People. \u201cI knew I had to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outlet reported that Walker\u2019s procedure was to implant a baclofen pump. People said that device delivers \u201cthe anti-spasticity medication baclofen directly into the spinal fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe surgery gave me a lot of hope,\u201d Walker told People. \u201cBut so far, you know, it\u2019s not great. It hasn\u2019t done what I wanted it to. Balance has been an issue lately.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I walking perfect? No.\u201d Walker added. \u201cAm I walking better? Absolutely. I got on a treadmill the other day without a harness holding me up to keep me from falling, and I walked five minutes. That\u2019s progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not perfect, Walker admitted to People that when he was first diagnosed with the disease back in 1996, the outlook was \u201chorrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told that I wouldn\u2019t be around very long and that I\u2019d be in a wheelchair and that I would be dead pretty quick because of the amount of lesions that I had on my spinal cord and brainstem and brain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That has given Walker some amazing perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe turned everything upside down,\u201d he told People. \u201cWe already won the battle, you know? We\u2019ve got that to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Walker told People that he is \u201cgoing through a rough patch right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it bother me that people have to watch me struggle to get off stage?\u201d Walker said. \u201cYes, I does. But my band is very in tune with me, and they know if I\u2019m struggling or not. All it takes is a glance. They are always there, especially my bass player (Curt Walsh). I\u2019m like, \u2018Dude, if you see me falling, fall in front of me so I don\u2019t get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker was 26 at the time that he was first diagnosed, and he was one of the brightest young stars in country music. Taste of Country said that the singer started his Clay Walker Foundation at the time and had raised $2.6 million as of 2024 for multiple sclerosis research.<\/p>\n

Walker began his career in 1993, and he scored his first big hit that year, too, as his \u201cWhat\u2019s It to You\u201d climbed all the way to the top spot on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart. He scored another number-one hit in 1994 with \u201cLive Until I Die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker has scored six number-one singles in total, across 11 studio albums.<\/p>\n

More country music news<\/p>\n

Read the original article on pennlive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Country music star Clay Walker has been open with fans about his long battle with multiple sclerosis, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,148797,12013,88,5004,127609],"class_list":["post-281135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-clay-walker","tag-country-music","tag-entertainment","tag-multiple-sclerosis","tag-people-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}