[ad_1]
The crooner, who rose to fame in the 1960s, was known for many hits including “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and “The Good Life,” and then reemerged decades later when, in his 80s, he came out with an album of duets, featuring celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Queen Latifah, Michael Buble, John Mayer and Aretha Franklin.
The performer and his family revealed he had Alzheimer’s in 2021, though he was diagnosed with the disease in 2016.
While many other people begin to slow down as they age — even without a disease such as Alzheimer’s — Bennett was becoming popular once again.
Here are four lessons Bennett taught in the later years of his life.
Stay active
Through his 60s, 70s and 80s, Bennett released albums, won Grammys and appeared in movies and television.
Bennett appeared as himself in television shows, including “The Simpsons” and “Blue Bloods,” as well as movies, such as “Analyze This,” starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, and “Muppets Most Wanted.”
The performer, who also pursued painting as a passion, released a book “Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music” in 2007.
Aside from the seven Grammys he won in his 80s (another was awarded the year of his 80th birthday, but six months prior), he also received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2006 as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
At 88, he was named “oldest person to reach No.1 on the US Album Chart with a newly recorded album” from the Guinness World Records. Through his 80s and into his 90s, he also performed at final shows at Shea Stadium, the original baseball stadium for the New York Mets (and near his hometown of Astoria, New York), the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and for the first time in Tel Aviv.
Read: RIP Tony Bennett: World mourns ‘one of the great voices of all time’ silenced
Work with younger generations
Bennett and Lady Gaga have known and worked together for more than a decade, starting with singing together on his “Duets II” album released in 2011. Three years later, they released an album together called “Cheek to Cheek,” which debuted at the top spot on the Billboard charts, People reported.
Bennett’s professional relationship with Lady Gaga introduced him to a new audience, and vice versa. “One of the reasons I recorded with Lady Gaga is that she has a young audience,” he said, according to the New York Daily News. “What a thrill it was to come out with her, and as we start singing, the young audience sings with us.”
Bennett also worked with John Legend, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, among other more junior performers.
Also see: Why Tony Bennett’s passing signifies the end of an era
Have a support system
Bennett was open about his drug use in the 1970s. In 1979, his ex-wife saved him from a near-fatal overdose in his home. “I realized I was throwing it all away, and I became determined to clean up my act,” he wrote in one of his memoirs, according to The Today Show.
The singer, who was also struggling with depression and financial stressors such as the Internal Revenue Service attempting to collect $2 million in back taxes, looked to his son Danny for help. Danny eventually became his father’s manager and was instrumental in supporting the singer’s resurgence in popularity.
”I realize how fortunate I am to have someone, in Danny, that is truly looking out for my best interests and not just in it for the money,” Bennett told the New York Times in 1999.
His son was also behind Bennett’s return to the stage, including concerts, Letterman’s talk show and MTV Unplugged. He continued to act as his manager through the rest of his father’s life, including when the singer held his last show at Radio City Music Hall, five years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Destigmatize Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s is described as a disease that steals — it takes memories, emotions and time from those diagnosed with it, as well as their loved ones. Lady Gaga opened up about her relationship with the performer before and after his diagnosis. In the last years of his life, he often didn’t refer to her by her name, instead calling her “sweetheart,” but while on stage during his last show at Radio City Music Hall, he introduced her as “Lady Gaga” when she appeared on stage.
“That’s the first time Tony said my name in a long time,” she said during a 60 Minutes interview. “When I walked out on that stage and he said ‘It’s Lady Gaga,’ my friend saw me. And it was very special.”
The disease may change how a person conducts their everyday tasks, including eating, bathing and communicating, but it doesn’t have to rob the patient of everything, his son Danny said in an interview with Jazz Times.
“Dealing as we have with Alzheimer’s for the last four years, we know that it’s cognitive, that he has memory loss, but that that doesn’t mean that all this is inside of him. He doesn’t use a teleprompter. He knows every line… From the physical point of view of being a singer, it’s a muscle,” Danny said during the interview, conducted in November 2021.
[ad_2]
Source link
