Neil Diamond on “A Beautiful Noise,” Parkinson’s, and being thankful

The brand new Broadway present, “A Lovely Noise,” is the story of a singer who’s bought greater than 130 million information. Its topic: Neil Diamond, who mentioned that attending the opening was “form of like a dream come true. It was completely great.”

Along with his spouse, Katie, by his aspect, the 82-year-old Diamond, who’s not often carried out since he was identified with Parkinson’s illness, led the group in a refrain of “Candy Caroline.”

There was, he mentioned, plenty of love within the theatre, “and I felt it.”

Mason requested, “Had been you ever getting flashbacks in the course of the present?”

“I believe continually, from the minute it began! Like, the whole lot was a flashback!”

He mentioned he’d wished to make a musical (he thinks all songwriters and performers have that need), however because the present was being developed, Diamond instructed the producers and writers he wished it “warts and all.” “I did not essentially like it, warts and all, however I wished it,” he mentioned.

Will Swenson performs the younger Neil Diamond, whose Olympian ambition undoes two marriages. Mark Jacoby performs the older Diamond, nonetheless haunted by self-doubt. Diamond mentioned. “This present was a part of my psychotherapy. And it harm. I did not like taking a look at myself in lots of the scenes.”

What half was hardest? “All of it was fairly exhausting. I used to be slightly embarrassed, I used to be flattered, and I used to be scared.”

Mason requested, “What have been you frightened of?”

“Being came upon is the scariest factor you’ll be able to hope, as a result of all of us have a façade, and the reality be recognized to all of ’em, I am not some large star; I am simply me.”

Only a Jewish child from Brooklyn who wished to be a songwriter.

In 2005, Diamond took “Sunday Morning” again to the Bitter Finish, the Greenwich Village membership the place the singer bought his begin. 

He requested, “Can I step up on the stage and see what it feels prefer to be 25 once more?

“It was my starting,” he mentioned. “It was proper right here.”

Within the Sixties Diamond climbed the charts with hits like “Cherry, Cherry,” “Thank the Lord for the Evening Time,” “Holly Holy,” and “Candy Caroline.”

Within the Seventies, with “Cracklin’ Rose,” “Tune Sung Blue,” and “You Do not Carry Me Flowers,” he conquered the world. By the Eighties, he was one its largest live performance attracts. Within the ’90s, nobody bought extra tickets than the “Jewish Elvis.”

When Diamond and Mason met as soon as extra in 2014 for “CBS This Morning,” the singer was about to go on the street once more – and he implied it wasn’t by alternative. “I’ve to, yeah. I do not need to,” he mentioned.

“So, the place does the ‘should’ come from?” Mason requested.

“I’ve to as a result of if I need to preserve any self … ” He paused. “I do not know why I’ve to.”

However in January 2018, Diamond revealed he’d been identified with Parkinson’s illness, a neurological dysfunction that abruptly ended his touring profession.

Diamond nonetheless recurrently visits his Archangel Studio in Los Angeles, the place the halls are decked with many years’ value of awards, and the place – for the primary time since that prognosis – he talked about dealing with Parkinson’s.

Mason requested, “How exhausting has it been so that you can surrender [touring]?”

“Oh, I nonetheless have not given it up, but. It is very exhausting,” he replied. “In a way, I used to be in denial for the primary yr or two. When the physician instructed me what it was, I used to be simply not prepared to just accept it. I mentioned, ‘Oh, okay. I am going to see you, you understand, everytime you wanna see me. However I’ve work to do, so I am going to goodbye.'”

His acceptance, he admits, is a piece in progress. “I am nonetheless doing it. And I do not prefer it,” he mentioned. “Okay, so that is the hand that God’s given me, and I’ve to make the perfect of it, and so I’m.”

Mason requested, “Was there a second in that course of the place you lastly form of did say to your self, I settle for this?”

“I believe this has simply been in the previous few weeks.”

“Actually?”

“However someway a peaceful has moved [into] the hurricane of my life, and issues have gotten very quiet, as quiet as this recording studio,” mentioned Diamond. “And I prefer it. I discover that I like myself higher. I am simpler on folks, I am simpler on myself. And the beat goes on, and it’ll go on lengthy after I am gone.

“I nonetheless can sing,” he mentioned.

“Do you might want to nonetheless sing?”

“Nicely, I like singing. I have been doing it for 50 years, and I take pleasure in it.”

“What occurs inside you whenever you sing?”

“I really feel good. It is like, all of the programs in my thoughts and my physique are working as one after I’m singing. And it is an incredible feeling.”

“[It’s] given you a fairly superb life.”

“I’ve had a fairly superb life, it is true,” Diamond mentioned. “And the factor was, I wasn’t at all times in a position to look again on it and be snug with it, smile, really feel that I used to be value it. I believe all of that good things is beginning to come into my life.”

Why? “Nicely, I can not actually battle this factor, so I needed to settle for it, this Parkinson’s Illness. There is not any treatment. There is not any getting away from it. You possibly can’t simply say, ‘Okay, sufficient already. Let’s get again to life.’ It does not work like that. However I’ve come to just accept what limitations I’ve, and nonetheless have nice days.”

Nice days, like a gap night time on Broadway.

He mentioned, “I simply should take life because it involves me, take pleasure in it, be grateful that I’ve had it, particularly having the life that I’ve had.”

For Neil Diamond, it is a life worthy of a Broadway musical.

Mason requested, “What does it imply to you?”

“Nicely, to paraphrase Sally Subject, ‘They like me! They actually like me!'” he laughed.

To hearken to the Unique Broadway Solid Album of “A Lovely Noise” click on on the audio participant beneath:

      
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Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Carol Ross.