Mark, Glenn Campbell has always been among my top musical heroes. His vocals were always superb, and his musical skills were unsurpassed. When I was still performing, I had a folder in the keyboard with a dozen of his songs in it. And, I continue to discover songs he composed and performed that I never heard of, many of which are outstanding, but just never took off like some of the others.

As for his dementia, I can assure you there is no connection between his multi-faceted abilities and this horrid disease. Similar to cancer, Alzheimer's really does not discriminate - it treats everyone with the same, nasty, horrid malady. Some die faster, while others seem to linger for up to as much as 10 years, but those in the later category are few and far between. Statistically, Alzheimer's patients usually die within 6 to 8 years after being diagnosed. Currently, there are only a few drugs that can slow the progression, but those drugs have their own set of nasty side effects, which can be equally as debilitating.

Unfortunately, there also seems to be a genetic component with Alzheimer's Disease. This is not always the case, but there is a significant number of patients that had a parent contract the disease and die from it. Personally, I believe that stem cell research could probably provide a cure, but that is one of those things that is not politically correct, and likely not going to happen in our lifetime.

All the best,

Gary