Glen Campbell’s widow reveals depths of love and struggle
Memoir “Gentle on My Mind” details the singer’s battles with alcoholism, Alzheimer’s.
Kim Campbell didn’t set out to write a book about her late husband, the charismatic country singer Glen Campbell.
Rather, it started as a keepsake of sorts for her and their kids; a way of remembering the six-time Grammy winner, who died in 2017 at age 81 after a sixyear battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
“I had begun to forget the life we had together,” Kim says. “As I started to write it down, it gradually started coming back to me in waves, and then it just came pouring out. It was very healing because my memories were returning and I realized what a beautiful life we had together.”
The resulting memoir is “Gentle on My Mind: In Sickness and in Health With Glen Campbell.”
The book candidly chronicles Kim’s 34-year marriage to Glen, documenting his years-long struggle with alcoholism and hard-fought road to sobriety, and his 2011 Alzheimer’s diagnosis and slow decline.
She talks to USA TODAY about Glen’s faith, courage and connection with music despite devastating memory loss.
Question: Writing this book, was it painful to revisit the years when Glen struggled with alcohol abuse?
Kim Campbell: It really wasn’t that painful, because we had such a victory over those years when God delivered him from alcoholism and drug addiction.
He became the best father and husband I could have ever hoped for, so it was a time of rejoicing for all that God had done in our lives.
Q: It’s heartbreaking reading your experiences with Glen’s drinking: how he’d sometimes fly into a rage, and you hid from him under your dining room table and behind your couch. And when he woke up the next morning, he’d act as if nothing happened. Did it take a while for you to understand his alcoholism as a disease?
Campbell: Sometimes it made me angry because I felt it was something you should be able to control.
I’m telling him: “You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me. If you love me, stop.”
And he just couldn’t. It was painful, because I felt he was choosing that over me. But then I bought all these books (about alcoholism), kept them hidden and began to read about it. And I realized that he really isn’t in control: This is a true battle for him.
I also felt like it was a spiritual battle because he was trying to give his life to God, but those old ways and sometimes old friends were pulling him in the opposite direction. There was a real turning point when he pulled a gun on me (while he was drunk). I thought, “This is it. I have got to reach out for help.” And when other people started confirming the same things that I was saying to him, then he started realizing, “Oh, OK, the only person I’m fooling is myself. I do have a problem.”
Q: Did you ever consider leaving him?
Campbell: I did consider leaving on at least two occasions. When he came home from the recording studio with (Fleetwood Mac co-founder) Mick Fleetwood, I knew he’d been doing cocaine. And here I am standing there with a little baby. I thought, “I’m not raising a child with someone who’s on drugs. I’m not doing that.”
And so I told him, “I will not do that. I will leave.” So that was one instance. And then the other time was when he pulled the gun on me. I thought, “I just can’t do this anymore, this is dangerous.”
But then God impressed on my heart, and I knew that if I left him, he would die. He was self-destructing, and I didn’t want that to happen because I loved him and wanted to help him. But I couldn’t do it alone anymore.
Q: Why was it important to include some of the darker chapters of your relationship, as unflattering as they may be at times about Glen?
Campbell: Glen paved the way for that, because he was always open about everything he was going through when he quit drinking.
He would tell audiences, “It”s been three years, two months, seven days and 39 seconds since I’ve had a drink.” He would make fun of it, but he would also be honest with people about what challenges he faced and how God helped him overcome those. And then with Alzheimer’s, who gets a diagnosis like that and then invites documentary filmmakers to come and document it? Until Glen, most people retreated from the public eye and hid away because there’s a lot of stigma to that disease. Glen didn’t do that: He wanted the world to know what Alzheimer’s was like.
So I did struggle with, “How much do you try and preserve someone’s dignity?” Talking about bathroom issues, or the things that show how they’re degenerating from being an adult male to becoming more childlike.
But it’s just telling the truth, and hopefully it can help (caregivers) and raise awareness about how the disease affects the entire family.
Q: You describe how his eyes would light up whenever he heard the intro to “Gentle on My Mind” during the Goodbye Tour, after he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. What was his connection like to music, even up until the very end of his life?
Campbell: It was miraculous to see him every night backstage, in this state of forgetfulness and Alzheimer’s. Even five minutes before a show (he’d ask), “Do we have a show tonight?”
But the minute he heard the music, it was like, Glen Campbell is back. He needed the teleprompter to help remember the words, but he didn’t need anything to remember how to play the guitar. It just flowed through him, it was almost spiritual.
He did eventually forget how to play guitar, but it was really sweet to watch him when other people would play music for him. He absolutely relished in it.
And sometimes he’d try to play along with air guitar – it was just so sweet.
Q: One of the book’s most amusing anecdotes is how Glen became unlikely friends with shock rocker Alice Cooper. What do you remember about their dynamic?
Campbell: They were golfing buddies and would go play golf together every chance they got.
One day, Glen and I were watching TMZ and we saw (him and Cooper). They had gotten their photo taken going through a red light in Phoenix on their way to play golf. So I’ve been trying to get a hold of that picture because it was a really funny shot of them. Alice always jokes and laughs about it.