Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease. A brain disorder that slowly eats away at basic memory and thinking skills, and is the most common cause of dementia in older adults. Roughly 7 million Americans struggle with the disease, a number that doctors expect to rise to over 13 million by the year 2050.
If you’ve ever watched a loved one go through it, you know just how wretched it can be. Watching your mom or dad slowly forget who you are, or maybe your grandparent not recognize you anymore or forget basic things like where they live… it’s awful. Country music is more than familiar with Alzheimer’s and many artists and songwriters have tackled the topic… Riley Green, Brett Eldredge, Kenny Chesney, Randall King, Glen Campbell (who suffered from it himself), and many more come to mind.
But one of my absolute favorites was a song written by Casey Beathard, and it was originally introduced to us via the great Eric Church. Back at Country Radio Seminar 2015, Eric Church debuted a new song he was working on about Alzheimer’s.
“This is probably a bad decision but I’m gonna play something nobody’s heard and I’m still writing and I still write songs and I don’t know if it’ll ever be cut or anything, but I just wanna play something new, I feel like.
When I was 10… 9 or 10 years old my grandfather, who the Chief album was named after, got Alzheimer’s which is a horrible disease. And the hardest issue I had with it was continuing to have a relationship when you see that person don’t remember you. And I was scared of it, I feared it, and this song kind of addresses that. It’s not exactly a party number but, see what you think.”
It’s a gut-wrenching tune, especially for anybody’s who’s ever had to watch a loved one struggle through Alzheimer’s, but it tackles the kind of frustration that you can face when caring for an older loved one. Conversations with doctors, the fight to get a stubborn old man to take his medicine (if you know, you know), but ultimately, it finds the author reflecting back on the who is grandfather is to the rest of the family… even if the grandfather doesn’t remember himself.
Titled “I Know Who He Is,” the song was eventually cut by William Michael Morgan for his debut album Vinyl in 2016. Casey Beathard is listed as the sole songwriter on the track, so it’s a little fuzzy whether or not Eric actually had a substantial hand in writing it. He has collaborated with Casey on a ton of songs over the years, and still does… Casey wrote, or co-wrote 12 songs on Eric’s Heart & Soul project.
William Michael Morgan’s version is phenomenal, so make no mistake about that, but I really would’ve loved to hear Eric get into the studio with this one.
And while you’re here, check our the William Michael Morgan version:
