LITTLE ROCK — Glen Campbell, Arkansas’ own sweet singer, has chosen a very different way of coping with his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease — rather than slowly fading away, he embarked on a goodbye tour, propelled by the help of his musical children.
Campbell’s opening act at his shows, Victoria Ghost, includes Ashley Campbell (banjo) and her brother, Shannon Campbell (guitar), who also perform in his backing band with brother Cal (drums).
Ashley, 25, recently described the joys and challenges of helping her dad on his last tour.
“It’s been just really fun,” she says from her Southern California home during a recent break in the tour. “Every day is a real blessing, and while we’ll be winding down after October, we’ll keep going for as long as he wants to. He’s really happy and enjoying life when he’s playing with his family.”
Being around their musical father definitely rubbed off on his children.
Ashley grew up in Arizona, and attended college at Pepperdine University in California, where she studied theater, which came in handy as she gradually made the transition into music. She can be seen in a video by the band Rascal Flatts of their song “Banjo.”
Arkansas holds many recollections for her, having returned with her family for many trips to see relatives in southwest Arkansas.
“I have tons of memories,” she says, “of summers in Delight, hanging out at a creek. We’d set up a stage and play music, of course.”
One of Campbell’s earliest Goodbye Tour stops in 2011 was in Forrest City at the East Arkansas Community College for a Sept. 10 show that had been booked prior to Campbell’s announcement of his illness. He also performed Dec. 2-3 in Branson.
Campbell’s tour will also have another eastern Arkansas stop, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, in the Arkansas State University Convocation Center in Jonesboro. Tickets are $59 and $39, plus service charges, available by calling (888) 278-3267 or (870) 972-2781 or going to the website tickets.astate.edu.
Plans to take the tour to Australia and New Zealand in August were canceled, due to the long travel times, and the possibility that Campbell’s illness might have been complicated by the lengthy flights, his daughter says.
“The travel would have been too rough on him,” she says. “So far, it’s all been very therapeutic for him. He’s having a blast.”
Campbell released Ghost on the Canvas, which will be the final album of his career, on Aug. 30, 2011, before embarking on his tour. The title song and “Any Trouble” were written by Paul Westerberg, who once said his dream was to become Campbell’s “new” Jimmy Webb, who wrote many of the songs (“Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Where’s the Playground Susie,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”) that became Campbell’s biggest hits. The album also includes songs written by Jakob Dylan (“Nothing But the Whole Wide World”), Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices (“Hold on Hope”) and Teddy Thompson (“In My Arms”).
The songs give Campbell the opportunity to musically describe what he is going through.
On “Strong,” he sings, “This is not the road I wanted for us, but now it’s here,” and on “A Thousand Lifetimes,” he sings, “Each breath I take is a gift I will never take for granted.”
Glen Campbell: The Goodbye Tour
Opening act: Victoria Ghost
7:30 p.m. today, Robinson Center Music Hall, Markham Street and Broadway, Little Rock
Admission: $94, $73.50, $63, $50
(800) 745-3000, (501) 244-8800
ticketmaster.com
Weekend, Pages 32 on 09/06/2012