Yahoo Lifestyle Chad King of A Great Big World’s ‘Say Something’ Reveals MS Symptoms Will Take Him Away From Performing (Exclusive)
In 2013, Chad King and Ian Axel of A Great Big World sent an emotional shockwave through the music industry with their Grammy Award-winning ballad “Say Something,” featuring Christina Aguilera. King, however, was on an emotional journey of his own, having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) just a few years earlier.
It was 2007 when he got the news. “I think I was 21,” King recalls in an exclusive interview with Parade, speaking for the first time on how his MS diagnosis has recently affected his relationship with the band. “At the time, I didn't know what MS was.”
Multiple sclerosis, an incurable autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, began to take hold. “I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting [MS],” King tells Parade, “so symptoms would come and go.” His legs started buckling when walking, his arms and legs would begin to tingle, and he started to experience vertigo.
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“I would just almost fall over enough to catch myself,” King recalls. “It got to a pretty severe case, but those symptoms would come and go. So I never really thought too much about it. I was like, ‘Okay, well, I can manage this.’”
But relapsing-remitting MS eventually makes its way back around—and King began to experience that firsthand.
“My walking started becoming impaired, and I started not being able to walk without a walking aid. I started needing a cane to walk,” he explains. “I also wouldn't be able to walk beyond a half mile. My endurance was just not there. And fatigue started to happen to me. And then—I'm fast forwarding quite a bit through a lot—it started affecting my voice, and I wasn't able to sing. Once that started to happen, I really started questioning everything that me and Ian were doing, at least in music—touring and performing-wise. I just realized that was going to be harder for me to accomplish. I knew [what] the band deserved.”
A Great Big World is set to release a new EP titled then there were sparks on Feb. 21 and will embark on an intimate tour at City Winery locations across the northeast, but King tells Parade that he will be part of the next venture in a limited capacity.
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Axel will primarily go on tour solo, but the duo will continue to write together. “Letting go of that idea of performing and touring has been one of the most challenging things for me,” says King.
But as Axel points out, King is welcome to join him on stage if he’s feeling up to the task. “We're both still open to: Does Chad want to come up and try to sing tonight? And what does that look like?” Adds King: “Is there an easy version of this song that I might be able to hop on to do?”
Aside from common MS symptoms like compromised motor skills, King’s voice was affected—and hearing the changes in his instrument was difficult to digest.
“We recorded an album called Particles, which was our last album, and we also did a live version of it. And when we were recording the live version, there was a song that I recorded, and then Ian and a producer friend, Chris, were like, ‘Why don't you come and take a listen to what it's sounding like?’” King recalls.
“I was like, ‘Why?’ I thought it sounded great. And then I went into the room where you listen back, and they played back what I had just recorded. And it was nothing like I heard in my head. Who is that? Who is that person singing? What is this? How am I not hearing that? What is going on? And it was in that moment that I was like, ‘Okay, things are changing.’”
Musically, it’s difficult for King to sustain pitch, and he says his singing can oftentimes be breathy. Additionally, his muscles begin to weaken every day after noon. “My whole left side goes weak,” he explains. “I can't play guitar after 12 p.m. because I just don't have the strength in my left hand. Same thing with working out; it's really hard to even lift weights or do pushups or do anything strength-wise.”
Navigating King’s MS has been challenging for both members of the award-winning duo. King and Axel, who met during their college years at New York University, are friends before anything else.
“It's been incredibly difficult for me to just witness things, but not knowing how to talk to Chad about it and not wanting for him to feel like I was holding him back, or I was telling him he couldn't do something,” Axel explains. “Chad's my brother. How do I love him and support him and be able to talk to him about these things? We're in couples therapy together, which I 100 percent recommend. We’re not a couple, but we're brothers, and we're best friends and collaborators.”
In their new single “then there were sparks,” they sing the lyric right where the end meets the start, “and that encompasses what the song means to me,” says King. “It's like this new beginning moment.”
It is a new start for A Great Big World, and King seems to have made peace with that. “My dreams are changing,” he admits. “I was dreaming about being a performer. I was dreaming about being a touring artist, but then those dreams shifted once I physically was not able to do that. All of a sudden, it's like, ‘Okay, well that doesn't seem to be in the cards for me—at least not right now.’ And then I had to pivot to more of the writing piece. Also, it was affecting Ian, and that was breaking my heart. He had so many dreams, too, for the band, and I felt like I was holding him back. And I don't want to do that.”
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There’s been a lot of sadness through King’s MS journey—but allowing yourself to go through the rollercoaster ride of emotions is OK, he says.
“Accepting this new normal has been the best thing for me,” King says. “And kind of adapting to my limitations, but also embracing the limitations and being like, ‘Okay, that's not for me in this moment, but I know that it's possible and can be.’”
For others on a similar journey, King wants them to know, “As isolating as this feels right now, as alone as you may feel with this, you are not alone. A smile comes to my face when I think about that because it’s so true. … This is just one of many chapters on your journey.”
