Gramm recounts how he discovered his brain tumor at age 47.
Basically I was sent home and told I was going to die. I happened to be watching 20/20 a night or two later and there was a segment on Dr. Peter Black at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. How he was the purveyor of laser brain surgery and he was able to operate on brain tumors that were considered inoperable as mine was. At the end of the segment it gave his office number and I called it early the next morning and his secretary suggested I get my MRI’s, get on a plane and come immediately. I did and a day and a half later I was on the operating table. There was no time to waste, it was a nineteen hour operation.
Fox News: Isn’t that scary thinking what would have happened if you hadn’t seen that show?
I don’t know what I would have done. I found out I was born with the tumor. It took 47 years to grow big enough to make itself known and start interfering with my life.
Fox News: Like a lot of rock stars you also abused drugs. How long were they a problem?
A dozen years. When the brain tumor was discovered I’d been clean and sober for five years.
Fox News: And you’re born again. When did that happen?
That happened just literally before [addiction treatment center] Hazelden. We had played a sold out concert at Madison Square Garden and there was the record company party afterwards that lasted until four or five in the morning. Everybody was in that condition and I ended up back in my hotel room, of course I wasn’t able to sleep. I just started doing a little self assessment and thinking about what I had become and was very upset about it and worried about my children seeing me like this. I finally fell to my knees and asked God to take this plague away from me.
A couple of hours later I called my attorney and asked him to book me into Halzeden and I wasn’t going home. I spent the best thirty days of my life there.
I’m a devout born-again Christian. God plays a role in everything I do. I know he gave me life and saved my life. I serve him.
Fox News: Is it hard singing songs like, “Feels Like The First Time” now?
As the words come out I’m asking Him to forgive me and I’m only just doing a job. (Laughs). I’m hoping he does. If anyone would understand it would be him.
Fox News: You recorded a Christian rock album.
After I became clean and sober I promised myself at some point I would do this although it took another 10 or 12 years. I remembered that promise and really had the desire to work on an album like that.
