LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Mark Volman, the veteran rock guitarist and songwriter who is best known as a founding member of the famed ’60s rock group The Turtles, revealed that he’s suffering from Lewy Body Dementia.
Volman shared the health update during an interview with People Magazine, telling the publication that he was diagnosed with the disorder in 2020 after suffering from hallucinations, tremors, and other symptoms.
Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects cognition, behavior, movement, and other functions. It is named after Lewy bodies, abnormal protein deposits that develop in the brain.
The progressive neurological disorder currently has no cure and symptoms include memory loss, attention and executive function deficits, visual hallucinations, changes to mood, tremors and issues with motor skills among others.
Volman appears to have been hallucinating during the People Magazine interview and according to the publication, he paused the interview to ask if the other people in the room saw a woman with a bleeding head sitting on a nearby couch.
After being reassured that there was no woman sitting on the couch, he continued to participate in the interview and photo shoot, People said.
“The challenges of this world affect everybody, and it’s been kind of fun being on the other side of a challenge like this and saying, ‘I feel good.’ My friends are here. I’m still here. And I want people to connect with me,” Volman told People Magazine.
Volman has been part of the music industry since he was still in high school when he landed a job as a roadie for future Turtles co-founder Howard Kaylan’s band, the Crossfires.
Kaylan and Volman went on to form The Turtles and scored several chart successes such as “Happy Together,” before the group split amid a dispute with their label.
Volman and Kaylan went on to perform as the duo, Flo & Eddie and also performed as part of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention using pseudonyms for contractual reasons.
Kaylan and Volman reunited in 2015 for a 50th anniversary your as The Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie.
