making e, f li of y it al qu e iz as h p “We em omen m y er ev e ak m to ow h d underst an n, becaus ai ag c si u m g in ak m is ie d d Fre
Guitarist silenced by ALS is making music again B Y
D E N N Y
A N G E L L E
His fingers fly over the guitar strings, pouring out notes in a torrential melody. The right hand shoots into the air, but the music still tumbles out, all tuneful, all picked by lightning fingers along the fret. The crowd explodes with applause. All hail Freddie Everett, guitar god.
30 䡲 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1
PHOTO BY FRANK CASIMIRO
Freddie Everett was well known in Houston and Texas for his fluid and super-fast guitar skills.
PHOTO BY ANGELA WALLING
The video ends and the sound stops. That was Freddie Everett four years ago, before amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) unplugged his guitar. What ALS could not stop was the music — it continued to play in his head. Today, Everett is a different picture. He is wheelchair bound and it is difficult for him to speak and at times, breathe. But he has found a way to create and play his music once again. While undergoing treatment and evaluation at the Methodist Neurological Institute, speech pathologists suggested Everett try a new system called ERICA — Eyegaze Response Interface Computer Aid — a camera-aided device that allows him to operate a computer merely by moving his eye. Using this technology, Everett has created enough music for a new album. “(The ERICA system) has been a godsend,” says Everett, 49. “My music is the most important thing in the world to me, and I can make my music again.”
Wearing a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt, he demonstrates how the ERICA system allows him to maneuver around a computer screen, playing tic-tac-toe or pressing buttons that in turn control other devices. If needed, the system can even talk for him in its own electronic voice. As ALS closed in around him, Everett felt helpless and depressed.
His wife, Annette, says he would sit for hours and stare helplessly at his silent guitars. She would help by writing down the music and lyrics he composed, then even that faded away. Getting the ERICA device a few months ago enables Everett to compose and synthesize his music on a computer. He also can use the system to control his environment — turning the lights on and off, changing channels on the TV. “He was watching a basketball game the other day and I left the room,” recalls Annette, who was Everett’s manager. “Hours later, he was still watching basketball and I realized … it was a different game, he had changed the channels.”
METHODISTHEALTH.COM
