Watch Michael J. Fox Play "All Along the Watchtower" with Dave Matthews
Last November, actor Michael J. Fox—who has lived with Parkinson's disease since being diagnosed with the illness in 1991—performed with Dave Matthews at a Parkinson's research event at New York City's Waldorf Astoria.
The gala—titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's—benefited Fox's own charity, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
This time, the Back to the Future and Family Ties star left his Gibson ES-345 at home and came equipped with a rosewood-necked Fender Telecaster. Although we don't know the duo's complete set list, we know they played Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," which—as we all know by now—was taken to new heights by Jimi Hendrix and his Fender Strat. You can watch a fan-shot (and, sadly, vertical) video below.
During the event, Fox described the day doctors gave him 10 years to live after diagnosing him with the illness when he was only 29. "It was pretty scary," he told David Letterman in April 2015. "I was 29, so it was the last thing I expected to hear. I thought I'd hurt my shoulder doing some stunt because I had a twitch in my pinkie.
"He [the doctor] said, 'The good news is that you have 10 years of work left.' That was 22 years ago, and I'm still working."
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
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