Neil Diamond faces Parkinson’s disease: ‘I have to make the best of it’

nypost.com:

diagnosis in 2018 and has now revealed that he’s only recently started to come to terms with it.Diamond shared that he was in denial and couldn’t accept his condition for the first year or two after his diagnosis with Parkinson’s, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects the brain and the parts of the body controlled by nerves, according to the Mayo Clinic.“I’m still doing it.

And I don’t like it,” Diamond said during an interview that will air this weekend on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “But … this is me; this is what I have to accept.

And I’m willing to do it. And, OK, so this is the hand that God’s given me, and I have to make the best of it, and so I am. I am.”Though it’s been several years since the doctors informed him of his diagnosis, it “has just been in the last few weeks” that he’s finally started to accept it, which has given him peace of mind.“Somehow, a calm has moved [into] the hurricane of my life, and things have gotten very quiet, as quiet as this recording studio.

And I like it. I find that I like myself better. I’m easier on people. I’m easier on myself. And the beat goes on, and it will go on long after I’m gone,” the music legend said.Diamond retired from touring after his diagnosis, but his life story is now being played out in the hit Broadway musical “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.”“It was all pretty hard.