Walker opened up about the challenges he faces due to his ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis (MS), revealing how difficult it is to perform on stage as his condition worsens. “Does it bother me that people have to watch me struggle to get off stage?” he said. “Yes, it does. But my band is very in tune with me, and they know if I’m struggling or not. All it takes is a glance. They are always there, especially my bass player (Curt Walsh). I’m like, ‘Dude, if you see me falling, fall in front of me so I don’t get hurt.’”
The country music star recently cancelled a show in Arkansas to undergo a medical procedure aimed at improving his MS symptoms. “The surgery gave me a lot of hope,” Walker told People. “But so far, it’s not great. It hasn’t done what I wanted it to. Balance has been an issue lately.”
Despite the challenges, Walker remains optimistic. “Am I walking perfectly? No. Am I walking better? Absolutely. I got on a treadmill the other day without a harness holding me up to keep me from falling, and I walked for five minutes. That’s progress.”
Diagnosed with MS in 1996, Walker reflected on how far he has come since then. “I was told that I wouldn’t be around very long and that I’d be in a wheelchair and that I would be dead pretty quickly because of the amount of lesions on my spinal cord, brainstem, and brain,” he said.
Now, with a newfound perspective, Walker cherishes the smaller victories. “We turned everything upside down,” he said. “We already won the battle, you know? We’ve got that to celebrate.”