Aside from being "Mr Guitar" Chet was a remarkably strong man. I recently learned that he fought a constant battle with cancer spanning the last 25 years of his life. No one knew this, even Chet's closest friends were not privy to this. Consider a man who fought a 25 year battle largely alone because thats the way he wanted it. More remarkable is his refusal to burden anyone with this information while at the same time being the public person that was, and is Chet Atkins. RIP Chet-we love you.
he also developed a brain tumor and had a stroke that ALMOST ended his playing... he says he forgot almost everything about how to play and had to retrain himself from damned near scratch. He did not perform publicly for a period of 5[as I recall his telling of the story] years during this retraining process. He managed to record a few afterwards [I am so glad that he did]. Also afterwards he went touring with the younger sect, endorsing so to speak. Chet is noted for acknowledging.
@punchdrunque Holy cow! That mental picture of Mr Guitar not knowing how to play any more and RETRAINING himself from scratch boggles my brain! It is an almost unimaginable picture!
I do remember back in the 70's Chet appearing on the Mike Douglas show and speaking of his battle with what he called The "Big C" which was colon cancer at the time.
Chet Atkins, my all time favorite on guitar. This piece I saw at least 15-20 years ago on Austin City Limits TV. Amazing music. Billga, please don't ever take this down.
Glad you liked it . It got took down when YouTube destroyed my whole channel for copyright infringements on Major League _aseball and The _rand Ole Opry.
Chet was once asked about how he handled making a mistake on stage and hesaid, "Everytime I play a concert, I look out and the whole front row is full of pickers who are better than me just waiting for me to 'miss it', so if I do make a mistake, they next time through the song, I play it the same way and the next time I go see one of them, they are playing it that way!! HA HA ".
When God made Chester Atkins he broke the mold. RIP, Chet!
StvMcQueen1 3 months ago
Aside from being "Mr Guitar" Chet was a remarkably strong man. I recently learned that he fought a constant battle with cancer spanning the last 25 years of his life. No one knew this, even Chet's closest friends were not privy to this. Consider a man who fought a 25 year battle largely alone because thats the way he wanted it. More remarkable is his refusal to burden anyone with this information while at the same time being the public person that was, and is Chet Atkins. RIP Chet-we love you.
1954tele 1 year ago
@1954tele
he also developed a brain tumor and had a stroke that ALMOST ended his playing... he says he forgot almost everything about how to play and had to retrain himself from damned near scratch. He did not perform publicly for a period of 5[as I recall his telling of the story] years during this retraining process. He managed to record a few afterwards [I am so glad that he did]. Also afterwards he went touring with the younger sect, endorsing so to speak. Chet is noted for acknowledging.
punchdrunque 1 year ago
@punchdrunque Holy cow! That mental picture of Mr Guitar not knowing how to play any more and RETRAINING himself from scratch boggles my brain! It is an almost unimaginable picture!
I do remember back in the 70's Chet appearing on the Mike Douglas show and speaking of his battle with what he called The "Big C" which was colon cancer at the time.
daffydoug 1 year ago
Chet Atkins, my all time favorite on guitar. This piece I saw at least 15-20 years ago on Austin City Limits TV. Amazing music. Billga, please don't ever take this down.
retthok 1 year ago 4
@retthok
Glad you liked it . It got took down when YouTube destroyed my whole channel for copyright infringements on Major League _aseball and The _rand Ole Opry.
billga2010 1 year ago
Never could get past those killer first stretches.
daffydoug 2 years ago 2
@daffydoug I've never played a more painful guitar chord in any music even jazz then that one postiion in Cascade.
GameLevelEditor 1 year ago
@GameLevelEditor Yup. That chord is the mother of all killer stretches.
daffydoug 1 year ago
Chet was once asked about how he handled making a mistake on stage and hesaid, "Everytime I play a concert, I look out and the whole front row is full of pickers who are better than me just waiting for me to 'miss it', so if I do make a mistake, they next time through the song, I play it the same way and the next time I go see one of them, they are playing it that way!! HA HA ".
jimirsaysbuddy 2 years ago 3
better than chet? impossible. the musican-police is everywhere ;-)
boguitar87 2 years ago
Chet's words, not mine. I think he was the greateast, ......probably because HE didn't think so.
jimirsaysbuddy 2 years ago 6
Chet never played a piece the same way twice ..... there's always a new lick in there somewhere to make it sound fresh. He was an amazing talent.
emjaybee63 2 years ago 2