NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville musician Kyle Veazey prepares to play in his first show at a Music City venue after more than two decades overcoming health complications and re-training his paralyzed hand to strum a guitar.
"I first heard Elvis when I was like, four or five. And ever since then. That's that's all I wanted to be," explained Veazey. "I would stick a foosball bat in the couch and use as a microphone and my my my grandma made me an Elvis jumpsuit that I'd wear and I have my parents as my audience."
But when he was 10 years old, his dreams were faced with some hurdles, "I was diagnosed with ADHD, OCD and Tourette's Syndrome. Then the next year at 11, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It started in my thyroid and would eventually spread to my thymus, all the lymph nodes on my neck, my chest, my lungs, my left underarm and would be wrapped around my vocal cords. The doctor actually said that there was a big chance that I would never talk above a whisper again."
A couple of years later at age 15, doctors found a benign brain tumor, believed to be a side effect of the radiation treatment to treat his thyroid cancer.
Veazey explained, "After the second surgery [to remove the tumor], there were complications with the surgery and I had two paralyzing strokes. That left me completely paralyzed on the right side, which is the side that I strum the guitar with."
Following 33 days in the hospital, Veazey returned home to begin a long road to recovery.
"I told my mom I want to play guitar again because I'd been playing guitar for about a year before," he explained. "What we did for first couple of months is I would sit down on the sofa and hold the guitar in my lap. And I would do the chords with my left hand and my mom would literally hold the pick in my right hand and move my arm up and down so that I could train my brain to remember how to do it. And then after I could hold the pick it took three years to just be able to get back to the point that I was before my stroke."
Fast forward nearly two decades and he has booked a few gigs in Nashville and is starting to see hours of therapy paying off.
"I worked so hard for so long and failed miserably for so long...I just always look to Keith Urban as a big inspiration," said Veazey.
After years of chasing the music dream and finally finding his rhythm despite a hand that still does not operate at full function, Veazey said it is no longer just about performing.
"The music, it's kind of just like the icing on the cake," explained Veazey. "You know, my biggest goal is just to encourage people. That's my biggest goal to make people say, 'If he can do it, so can I.'"
Veazey's debut show is Monday, January 24, at the Springwater Supper Club in Nashville at 9 p.m. The entry fee is $7.
He says any support is a dream come true and to top it off, Monday is his 36th birthday.
