Zac Brown Band musician John Driskell Hopkins diagnosed with ALS

‘God willing, I plan to be rocking with these amazing people for many years to come,’ musician said

(Zac Brown Band/Instagram)

Zac Brown Band musician John Driskell Hopkins has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The condition, which is also known as motor neurone disease, is a degenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

It is often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the baseball player who was diagnosed with it.

In a video posted to Instagram on Friday (20 May), Driscoll stood with the fellow members of the country music group and shared his “tough news” with their 900,000 followers.

The 51-year-old said that he’d been struggling with “some balance issues and some stiffness in my hands” during “the past several years”, but had only recently been diagnosed.

“After careful analysis by some of the country’s top neurologists, I have been diagnosed with ALS,” he said. “Because my symptoms have been slow progressing from the start, we believe they will continue to be slow progressing going forward.

“God willing, I plan to be rocking with these amazing people for many years to come.”

The band then encouraged fans to donate to Hop On A Cure, a foundation set up in Hopkins’ name to find a cure for motor neurone disease.