Lady Gaga shares the joys and discouragement of making a new album with Tony Bennett while battling Alzheimer’s

Lady Gaga first met Tony Bennett a decade ago, leaving the backstage during a gala performance in New York City. The two became “fast friends” and unlikely singing companions, recording and touring live together. Their 2014 duet album “Cheek to Cheek” debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, capturing the hearts of several generations. Gaga has often spoken fondly of Bennett in interviews, and for the past two years the duo have been working together on a new album.

But a recently revealed development puts this effort in a completely different light: Bennett’s wife and son have publicly announced that the legendary 94-year-old jazz singer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.

In the latest issue of AARP magazine, writer John Colapinto describes Bennett’s recent meeting at the New York apartment he shares with his wife and primary caregiver, Susan. The image he paints in the article is familiar to those who have experienced a cognitive impairment of a loved one, alternating expressionless reactions and moments of lucidity without rhyme or apparent reason. Susan says that luckily she can still remember family members, but she’s not always sure what she’s doing or what’s going on. “Worldly objects as familiar as a fork or a set of house keys can be absolutely mysterious to him,” Colapinto wrote.

Susan told AARP that they are lucky that her husband has a lot of help and can still live a relatively normal life as her memory deteriorates. I wasn’t sure if it would live up to recording an album, but they decided to give it a try. Music is a surprisingly powerful tool for people with Alzheimer’s (even patients with severe and advanced dementia may have memories triggered by music), so Bennett’s neurologist encouraged him to continue making music while enjoying it. .

So that’s what he’s done making this new album with Lady Gaga, which will be released this spring. However, he will not be able to promote himself through interviews or tours as he normally would. Even during the recording sessions, evidence of his illness struck hard when he was not singing, as Colapinto shared:

“In a raw documentary of the sessions, he speaks rarely and when he does his words stop; sometimes he seems lost and bewildered. Gaga, clearly aware of her condition, keeps her words short and simple (as experts recommend in illness when they talk to Alzheimer’s patients) “Sounds great, Tony,” she tells him at one point. “Thank you” is her one-word response. She says she thinks “all the time.” about her 2015 tour. Tony looks at her wordlessly. “Wasn’t it fun every night?” she asks him. “Yes,” he says, uncertain. The pain and sadness on Gaga’s face are clear right now, but never more so than in an extraordinarily moving sequence in which Tony (a man she calls “an amazing mentor, a friend and a father figure”) sings a passage in lonely of a love song. Gaga looks from behind the microphone at the smirk, her eyes overflowing, before putting her hands to her face and sobbing. “

Seeing the mind of a loved one disappear is exhausting to the point of feeling cruel. There is no other way to say it. The friends and family of the approximately 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s can attest to their difficulty, especially when cognitive decline leads to forgetting even the most intimate relationships.

The difficulty of Alzheimer’s makes it difficult to destigmatize the disease. People should know that it is not an immediate death sentence and that people can live a quality life with the support of their loved ones long after they have been diagnosed. We don’t need to hide people with dementia, but we do need to understand how to interact with them, as well as what to expect and not expect.

And sometimes people with Alzheimer’s can surprise us. Susan said that despite the obvious cognitive decline, Bennett was still able to perform his music impeccably until his last public performance in March 2020, when the pandemic stopped concerts. He said he might seem very confused about where he was and what was going on behind the scenes before a performance, but as soon as he heard “Ladies and Gentlemen: Tony Bennett!” he would go on stage, smile at the audience and sing the chorus as he always did. During each performance of the last four years, Susan cared about forgetting lyrics or getting confused on stage. “I was a nervous wreck,” he said. “Still, he always delivered!”

The full AARP article is worth reading, as it outlines Bennett’s illustrious career, his life before and after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, and how his family is managing the changes in him. It also includes valuable information about dementia for people who are undergoing similar changes with their loved ones.

As the world awaits the release of the collaboration of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Bennett’s family and friends await the inevitable. Susan indicated that she will know the end is near when Bennett stops singing altogether. “Singing is everything to him. Everything. It has saved his life many times,” he told Colapinto, before pointing out the power of music again.

“I miss a lot of things because he’s no longer old Tony,” he said. “But when he sings, it’s old Tony.”