Roberta Flack has ALS, now 'impossible to sing,' rep says

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Roberta Flack has ALS, now ‘impossible to sing,’ rep says

November 14, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — A representative for Roberta Flack announced Monday that the Grammy-winning musician has ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and can no longer sing.

The progressive disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak,” Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga said in a release. “But it will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon.”

The announcement of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diagnosis comes just ahead of the premiere of “Roberta,” a feature-length documentary debuting Thursday at the DOCNYC film festival.

Flack is known for hits like “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” the latter of which catapulted her into stardom after Clint Eastwood used it as the soundtrack for a love scene in his 1971 movie “Play Misty for Me.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/roberta-flack-als-diagnosis-403caf46fc277d8fddeb438a1f57979d

[Srkdqltr]

1. How sad. Loved her songs.

[2naSalit]

2. A great musician...

So sad.

[highplainsdem]

3. Oh, no... Tragic news. It's such a cruel disease.

[Demovictory9]

4. Sad

[sdfernando]

5. So sad to hear this news

Roberta Flack had such a beautiful and clear voice...I can still hear it in my mind.

[hlthe2b]

6. Wow. About the saddest diagnosis. Trapped in her body, alert, aware, but unable

to do any of the things she wants to do, including sing.

I am so saddened and can only extend my best wishes to her. May she be surrounded by those who love and support her, fully.

[highplainsdem]

7. Heartbreaking diagnosis. Someone I knew online died of ALS years ago,

and he allowed some of his battle with ALS to be filmed. Ernie Wallengren, a writer-producer for some popular TV shows, who also coached boys basketball. I mentioned him and linked to a page with some of the video in a message I posted in the Lounge for George Kooymans of Golden Earring, who also has ALS, and whose diagnosis ended not only the 60-year career of that group, but a trio and duo he was also in and recording new music with. One of the members of the trio recently released a new solo album including a song George composed the music for.

https://democraticunderground.com/10181674319

https://democraticunderground.com/10181674319#post74

Replies 47 and 48 in that thread have info on other musicians with ALS, and reply 69 has video from CBS about one of them, John Driskell Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band.

[Jilly_in_VA]

8. So tragic

First we lose Linda Ronstadt's voice to Parkinson's, and now this.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. I Wondered About That

I knew a girl in grade school whose dad had Lou Gehrig's disease. (It wasn't commonly called ALS until later.)
He stopped being able to walk & the 2nd thing he lost was speech. They lived about a block away so we walked to school now & then when we were little kids.
This was around 6th grade. IIRC, he was gone before junior year of HS.
Very sad.