In his first detailed interview since revealing his ordeal two weeks ago, he said his recording and recording schedule would continue as normal.
The 79-year-old — best known for her early ’70s Las Vegas hits, I Did What You Did to Maria, and Is This The Way to Amarillo — is about to fly to Nashville to record new music and will be touring the UK in the spring.
“I was a little sad but I thought, ‘I can still work, it doesn’t affect my singing, my voice, my show,'” he said. “As long as I could step up to that stage and do what I was born to do.”
“I’m used to working, it’s hard when I’m not working. And I love music — it’s good for what I have, it’s medicine. Whatever that is, we’ll deal with it.”
But it is clear that it is difficult for this energetic man to think in the long term. There may come a time when he can’t perform or remember his beloved wife of 55, Sue, 74, or their three children and seven grandchildren.
He said, “This is my only concern, but I trust Sue. This is one of the things that keeps me going and keeps me from worrying.”
Besides, if he forgets all his words, there is one song that he will always have some help with. “You don’t have to sing Amarillo, the crowd sings it anyway!” he laughed.
Yorkshire boy Tony, who now lives in Lichfield, Staffordshire, explains that the first sign of his mental illness was noticing that his usually sharp memories had faded. Who recorded it? – I knew everything.
“I was suddenly thinking ‘I knew this, I knew that.’ Sue had to remind me of the name of someone I’d known for 60 years. My hobby was writing cryptic crosswords, I’ve done it for 50 years. Now I can’t answer them all.”
Two years ago, he and Sue decided to go to the doctor, and within a few weeks tests revealed a small buildup of “plaque” in Tony’s brain.
But the singer believes that higher powers support him. He says: “I always ask the angels to help me, it helps me.
“Every time before I go on stage I spend ten minutes alone talking to the angels, ‘Thank you for everything, please help me through this show.’ And it works. All I ask is let me do what I’m here to do, let me go up on the stage “.
The first drug prescribed by doctors to slow the progression of dementia left Tony exhausted.
But the second drug succeeded brilliantly in improving Tony’s condition. The couple hopes to get new drugs. Tony’s only concession to the disease is playing the lyrics on a photocopier, but he says he doesn’t need it regularly.
Anyone with symptoms is urged to get tested. He said, “I’m so glad it all came out. If it helps other people with the same problem and gets them to go and get some tablets that will help, that’s what we hope will happen.”
Fortunately, his long-term memory is still clear and he can recall his long career. After his three major hits and a slot on Pal Des O’Connor’s Las Vegas TV show, he came his way. Tom Jones’ manager turns it down – much to Tom’s horror when Tony tells him.
But the fame did not last long in the UK, though it did in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Although Tony did not have a huge ego. His memories touch the big stars who didn’t know him. John Lennon once rudely asked him to move his car from outside his Los Angeles studio.
And The Who drummer Keith Moon asked to borrow £20 at a Park Lane club, never to be seen again. “They wouldn’t let me have a tab,” Tony recalls. He didn’t know who I was. But the public does. The singer reached a new audience when he impersonated Peter Kay’s Amarillo for Comic Relief in 2005, moving it to number one where it stayed for seven weeks.
The Queen told him that members of the royal family often play it at family parties.
He added with a laugh: “I was walking in town one day and all the school kids were walking behind me singing it.” I joined him. “
When he turns 80 in April, he plans to perform at his birthday party. The show must and will go on.
- Dementia UK is a specialist nursing charity providing support for anyone affected by dementia, offering a free helpline and clinics with dedicated Admiralty nurses. Tony supports the “I Live With Dementia” campaign. Visit dementiauk.org.
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