David Cassidy Battling Dementia

David Cassidy has spent as much time in the tabloids as he did in the fan magazines that were everywhere during his career as one of the best selling pop stars in the world. There was a time when every teenage girl wanted to marry him and teenage boys, despite their protest about the wimpiness of his music, wanted to be like him.

The man played to sold out stadiums all over the world and his name was a household word. There's no doubt that he was riding high in those days, but it didn't take long for him to seek an escape from the world of being a teen idol. He tried, for a bit, to do a little more grown-up version of himself, but the teenage girl fans had already moved on to someone else and the guys never liked his music and that was that.

His spiral down has, for the most part, well covered by the press. The press, when you are on your way up and when you're at the top, are glad to report your every move. What kind of cologne David wore was real news. What the man had for dinner and who he dated were both covered by the press when he was the NBT (Next Big Thing).

Well, the fans are gone now. The  money, such as it was, is also gone. No doubt it was spent long ago on living the good life. The money and the fans may be gone, but the press is still right there. Reporting his downfall and splashing side by side pictures so we can see the difference between then and now.

The other day, all the entertainment rags were all over Cassidy about a performance he gave the other night. it seems that Cassidy's speech was slurred and he couldn't remember lyrics to his songs. "He must have been drunk", "He must be doing drugs again." Well, today we learned that David Cassidy was neither drunk not on drugs. David Cassidy announced that he can no longer tour because he is fighting dementia.

Cassidy has a family history of dementia. His mother, Evelyn Ward, died at age 89 after struggling with dementia for years. According to all the stories I've read about it, he sort of knew and feared that this might happen. Cassidy plans to try to keep a few dates, but even that is iffy at this point.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to David Cassidy. He brought a lot of people a lot of joy and fun. Not a lot of us can make such a claim.I  understand that he really did want to be a musician, but teen idols are supposed to stay in the back and let the execs run things. Well, Cassidy reached a point where he didn't want that anymore and the public, the record labels and songwriters turned their backs. The teen idol machinery chewed and spit out another victim.

I'm not sure that Cassidy ever recovered from his fame. Our thoughts and prayers go out to David Cassidy.