when tony bennett's family announced he had alzheimer's disease in february few of the 94
year old singers fans imagined they'd ever see him on stage again but this summer with his family's
help the legendary crooner began rehearsing for two concerts at radio city music hall with his
friend lady gaga no one knew for sure if tony would be able to pull it off but his family
believed that tony's story could give hope to others struggling with alzheimer's and invited us
to follow him preparing for what would likely be his final act the story will continue in a moment
i left my heart
in san francisco
tony bennett has been singing hits and swinging jazz for seven decades but for tony now
those years are a dim memory lost in the fog of dementia from alzheimer's he spends much of
his time in his new york apartment looking through books and old photos what are these of we met tony
and his wife susan in june a few weeks before his 95th birthday is that bob hope and dolores they
sent that for your 75th birthday and in a month and a half you're going to be 95. how about that
do you feel 95 you don't look it how old do you feel tom 95
tony has his good moments but susan has to do most of the talking
she says he first grew concerned about his memory five years ago we came home one night
and he said susan he said i'm having a hard time remembering the names of the musicians
the musicians he was playing with yeah who he works with all the time and so it was unusual
and i said well do you want to go see a doctor about it and he said i do did you know right
away that it was alzheimer's yeah dr gayatri devi is tony's neurologist she diagnosed him in 2017.
do you know what is happening in in tony's brain no one really knows but i know that
his hippocampus which is the grand central station of memories and the conduit through
which we retrieve memories as well as lay down memories is not working very well look at this tom
wow what's that that's a painting that you did susan and tony have been together for more than 30
years she's now his full-time caregiver how much does tony understand about what's going on around
him at any given time every day is different tony late at night sometimes early in the morning
he's more alert if i can use that word so i'll tell him tone you're going to be on 16 minutes
he's like great i said you remember that show 16 he's like i do but in any other given moment he
won't know i mean he recognizes you he recognizes me thank goodness his children we are blessed in
a lot of ways he's very sweet he doesn't know he has it he doesn't know he has alzheimer's
what he does know is that he's at home not performing on stage he'd continued to sing
after his diagnosis but the pandemic took him off the road susan says it's been hard on him it was
gayatri devi our doctor who said if he wants to sing let him sing because that's the best
thing for him you know all the meds and all the treatments they do to stimulate your brain for him
there's nothing more stimulating than performing tony's oldest son and manager danny bennett came
up with the idea of the radio city concerts in august with lady gaga it'll be broadcast on cbs
later this fall the pandemic was a big it was a big thing for me like ending his career
on that it couldn't end that way couldn't end that way after all that he he did
tony and lady gaga released their first album together in 2014
in 2018 he was able to record another album with her which was just released this past week
by june however his disease had progressed and susan told us she
wasn't sure exactly what would happen at the planned radio city concert
how you doing handsome okay you want to look over here at me
but when it was time to rehearse something incredible happened
tony's accompanist lee musicer began playing and suddenly the legendary showman was back
let someone stop believing in you let him hold up his hand
let him find you and watch what happens this mother your heart is aching
smile
even though it's breaking he had no notes no cue cards when there are clouds in the sky
you'll get by we were amazed all his old songs were somehow still there
he sang an hour-long set from memory if you just smile
bravo tony thank you that was incredible you just start playing something and it's all there
when i start playing tony is completely engaged and this is a whole new performance and new
phrases new nuance nothing short of a miracle dr gayatri devi explained how a transformation like
that was possible people respond differently depending on their strengths in tony's case
it's his musical memory his ability to be a performer those are an innate and hardwired
part of his brain so even though he doesn't know what the day might be
or where his apartment is he still can sing the whole repertoire of the american songbook
and move people how does music stimulate the brain it engages multiple different parts of the brain
right so there's the auditory cortex for hearing there's the part of the brain that deals with
movement and dance there's the visual system that gets engaged so it's kind of like a whole brain
activator tony could remember the songs but could he remember how to perform them in front of
thousands of people lady gaga knew it wasn't going to be easy and you know anderson for the first
couple of weeks that i saw tony since kovid he called me sweetheart but i wasn't sure he knew who
i was in rehearsals this july she found new ways to connect and communicate with her old friend
when asking him questions she'd keep it simple for example if i were to say tony would you like to
sing love for sale he'll say yeah and if i say tony would you like to say sing love for sale
or it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing he might not have as easy of a response
do you want to say anything goes yeah all right one through four anything when that music comes
on it's something happens to him he knows exactly what he's doing and what's important
for me actually just to make sure that i don't get in the way of that on opening night in early
august radio city's 6 000 seats were sold out it was tony's 95th birthday and his fans were waiting
lady gaga opened the show
backstage susan did her best to remind tony what was happening we're going to watch
when it was time they walked toward the stage together
then the lights went out and the curtain went up
wow well once he saw the audience and you know when he raises his hands i knew we were all right
because he became himself he just turned on you know it's like a light switch
let someone start believing in you let him hold out his hand
let him find you and watch what happens stepping out with my baby can't go wrong cause i'm in right
ask me when will that day be the big day may be tonight this is all i ask there may have been
a few missteps but the crowd didn't care it was tony's night and the old crooner was in command
beautiful girls
walk a little slower
when you walked on me
he sang more than a dozen songs and got at least 20 ovations going should standing
wow what a great audience when it came time for lady gaga to join him for some final duets
listen to what tony said as she appeared on stage hey tony
lady gaga
i like that do it again
that's the first time that tony said my name in
a long time really in in all the weeks leading up to it he hadn't said your name wow i had to
keep it together because we had a sold-out show and i have a job to do but i'll tell you when i
walked out on that stage and he said it's lady gaga my friend saw me and it was very special
without care but you know tom i'm kind of broke
and at the end of the night lady gaga was there to walk tony bennett off the stage one last time
it's the last thing that i said to tony on stage was um mr bennett would be my honor if i could
escort you off the stage and he said okay and i did and just simply being the woman that got to
walk him off stage that's enough for me you were so amazing the public loved it yeah yeah you were
you were spectacular thank you better everybody mr tony bennett thought it was a triumph really it's
like you know climbing mount olympus and he made it a few days after that triumph we met tony and
susan on their daily walk in central park how did you feel about the concert the other night did you
know what you mean i saw you at radio city you did a great job oh thank you very much tony had
no memory of playing radio city at all is this a sad story tony bennett's last performance
no it's not a sad story it's emotional it's hard to watch somebody change i think what's been
beautiful about this and what's been challenging is to see how it affects him in some ways but
to see how it doesn't affect his talent i think he really pushed through something to
give the world the gift of knowing that things can change and you can still be magnificent
for me
you