Love and Theft‘s Stephen Barker Liles shared a heartfelt video on Instagram on Wednesday (Oct. 18) in which he revealed that his mother has been diagnosed with ALS. Having silently dealt with the news over the past several months, the singer decided to enlist the help of some friends to host a benefit for his mother and ALS in December.
“So this is me telling you something that’s going on in my life,” he says in the short video clip. “I found out a couple months ago that my mom has been diagnosed with ALS. It’s a really, really rough, crazy, ruthless disease which currently there is no cure. When we found out, we decided we would try and raise some money for new research with the ALS Tennessee chapter and for my mom for treatments and anything for her everyday needs.”
Liles goes on to share that he called on many of his friends in Nashville, and they reached back out to him in support for the upcoming concert. The event, called Shine for Susie, will be held on Dec. 4 at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium and tickets go on sale Oct. 20 at 10AM.
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In his Instagram post, Liles thanks Florida Georgia Line, Canaan Smith, Dee Jay Silver, Trent Tomlinson, Craig Campbell and Jerrod Niemann for their support. With FGL and Love and Theft already confirmed to the lineup, it’s safe to say the artists mentioned will likely make appearances as well.
ALS is short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. According to MDA.org, it’s “a disease of the parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. In ALS, motor neurons (nerve cells that control muscle cells) are gradually lost. As these motor neurons are lost, the muscles they control become weak and then nonfunctional.” In the U.S., ALS is commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the Yankees baseball player who died in 1941 after battling the disease. ALS progressively robs its victims of the ability to talk, eat, walk or care for themselves. There is no known cure.
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