There are many well-known and hugely successful musicians who have disabilities, and a good number of them have discussed their conditions in public.
As you will see in this article, these artists tend to be strong-natured individuals who have had to overcome adversity in order to achieve their dreams. While some of them don’t attribute much importance to their disabilities, others credit their condition as a major influence their artistic journey.
Let’s dive in and find out about some of these inspirational musicians.
20. Casey Harris
Keyboardist of American pop rock band X Ambassadors Casey Harris was born with a genetic condition called Senior-Loken syndrome.
This can commonly affect both the kidneys and retina which generally leads to visual impairment. Harris was diagnosed as legally blind from birth.
“My vision was, obviously, always a major part of my childhood,” Harris told Disability Talent. “But I was lucky enough to grow up in Ithaca, New York, where they had a really incredible school and an open-minded school district.”
19. Dandy
UK based alternative pop musician Dandy was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis back in 2018.
Symptoms of ME/CFS include an overwhelming fatigue, problems with sleep, issues around thinking and concentration along with pain and dizziness.
“I would honestly say that I probably would have gone through the rest of my life really struggling with my confidence if I hadn’t become disabled,” Dandy said in an interview with The Guardian. “I had to become confident in a wheelchair, with people staring at me and interrogating me when I’m trying to buy bog roll.”
18. Gaelynn Lea
American folk singer, violinist and public speaker Gaelynn Lea has a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta or OI.
The genetic disease causes bones to fracture or break easily. The condition is also known as brittle bone disease and can sometimes lead to severe medical complications.
“One day you’ll be fine and then you’ll just break a bone and all of a sudden, the next six weeks are completely derailed from what you had envisioned for yourself,” Lea revealed to Arts.gov. “That idea of impermanence is in a lot of my songs, and I’m sure that it’s, at least partly, because of my disability that it makes it in there.”
17. Blaine Harrison
English musician and songwriter Blaine Harrison is best known as the lead vocalist of UK indie rock band Mystery Jets.
Harrison was born with the disability spina bifida which has affected his leg muscles since he was a child. The condition centres around a defect of the spine that often causes paralysis of the lower limbs.
The condition, said Harrison, “has it’s upsides and downsides. I was in hospital for the last 3 weeks with pressure sores on my feet,” he told the BBC when asked about being a disabled musician. “We have been touring constantly for the last 3 months and I was being a bit silly about not really knowing my limitations.”
16. Jose Feliciano
Musician, singer and composer Jose Feliciano was born blind as a result of congenital glaucoma. The Puerto Rican suffered from an ocular enlargement of his eyes and as a result – a lifetime of blindness. Yet he is philosophical about his condition.
“In one sense being blind helped because if I would have been sighted, I probably would have been playing stickball in the streets,” Feliciano suggests in a 2020 interview. “And not listening to the message that God was giving me, which was music all the time.”
15. Rick Allen
Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen was on his way to a New Year’s Eve party in 1984 when he got into a race with another driver.
Allen lost control, was thrown from the car and his left arm severed with doctors unable to reattach the limb. But rather than his disability becoming career ending, Allen retooled his drum kit and taught himself to play using foot pedals.
“I really didn’t want to be here and I felt very defeated,” Allen admits in an interview with Page Six adding that he felt “very awkward” and “self-conscious.” – “a lot of my peers, a lot of fans, my family… a lot of encouragement, they all tried to help lift me up and then finally I got it.”
14. Jeff Healey
Late blues rocker Jeff Healey lost his eyesight to cancer when he was only a year old. When he was three, he was given his first guitar, settling on an unconventional playing style which saw him place the instrument on his lap with his fretting hand above the neck.
This unorthodox technique is said to have contributed to his incredibly fluid and soulful style that led to millions of record sales in the mid-80s. Healey developed into an accomplished trumpet and clarinet player too. He died in 2008 of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that starts in the bones, at the age of 41.
13. Gary Numan
Frontman of New Wave band Tubeway Army, Gary Numan also found great success as a solo artist and is considered a pioneer of electronic music. He displays many symptoms of autism, having a difficult time relating to others socially with behaviour and thinking patterns that can be both rigid and repetitive. Yet the singer has a positive outlook on his challenging condition.
“I see it as a gift. If I could have my time again I would choose to have it again,” Numan told UK newspaper The Express. “It brings so many things that are positive.”
“People say being obsessive is a bad thing but there are times when being obsessive is a good thing,” he continued. “I use the skills to focus in work. In music it gives me a focus.”
12. Ian Curtis
Best known as the lead singer, lyricist and occasional guitarist of post-punk band Joy Division, Curtis suffered from both epilepsy and depression.
He began having epileptic seizures in late 1978 and was officially diagnosed with the condition in January of the following year. Curtis’ condition was so severe it was said the artist’s “life would be ruled to obsolescence by his severe epilepsy” without the various strong dosages of medications he was prescribed.
Tragically, Curtis took his own life in 1980 at the age of just 23 on the eve of Joy Division’s first North American tour.
11. Ian Dury
Dury rose to fame during the late 1970s punk/new wave era as lead singer and lyricist of The Blockheads. He contracted polio which left him with a shrunken arm and significantly ‘hobbled’ walk. Yet Dury continued to perform and record until his death in 2000.
“If he hadn’t had polio, he would have been like Bugsy Malone or Ronnie Kray,” said Blockheads keyboardist Chaz Jankel during an interview with The Guardian. “But he put that anger into his lyrics and his stage persona – and we were his gang.”
10. Tony Iomni
Co-founder of Black Sabbath Tony Iommi lost the tips of middle and ring finger on his right hand during an accident at a sheet metal factory.
The guitarist made caps for his damaged fingers, melting plastic bottle tops and then covering them with leather. He also used lighter gauge guitar strings that were detuned a few steps to ease the tension on his digits.
“So they put me on this giant, huge press — a guillotine-type press. I don’t know what happened, I must have pushed my hand in.” Iomni recalls. “Bang! It came down. It just took the ends off [my fingers]. I actually pulled them off. As I pulled my hang back, it sort of pulled them off…I wouldn’t accept that there wasn’t some way around it, that I wouldn’t be able to play.”
9. Andrea Bocelli
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli was born visually impaired with a condition called congenital glaucoma. At the age of twelve, the opera star was rendered completely blind, following a brain haemorrhage from the result of a football accident. But Bocelli’s stresses that his music is not heavily influenced by traumatic experiences and poor fortune.
“The fact that I am blind is not what defines my life,” explains in a 2023 interview. “People wonder if there is a relationship between my lack of sight and the way I sing. But there’s no connection.”
8. Paul Stanley
Frontman, rhythm guitarist and vocalist of hard rock band Kiss, Paul Stanley was born deaf on his right side because of a birth defect called Microtia
The condition occurs when the external ear is completely missing which naturally causes deafness in that area and it has often led to unwanted judgement across his career.
“When you have something physical that sets you apart from people,” Stanley insisted during a recent interview with People magazine. “It makes you really a target of unrelenting scrutiny and sometimes ridicule.”
7. Django Reinhardt
Considered one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe, Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer Reinhardt grew up within a gypsy camp outside Paris. It was there he learned to expertly play guitar and violin .
Yet in 1928, he was badly burned in a caravan fire which left his right leg paralysed and his left hand partially mutilated. Reinhardt learned to walk again with the help of a cane and retaught himself how to play guitar.
“The two smallest fingers on his left hand–crucial to a guitarist for articulating notes on the fretboard–were paralyzed.” explains Open Culture’s Mike Springer. “A lesser musician would have given up, but Reinhardt overcame the limitation by inventing his own method of playing.”
6. Bill Withers
Bill Withers was a chronic stutterer until the age of 28. Sometimes referred to as Stammering, the condition affects the fluidity of speech and is relatively common in childhood but can also persist into adulthood.
Despite his ailment, Withers went on to have several hits over a career spanning 18 years including ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Just the Two of Us’ along with winning three Grammy Awards.
“I couldn’t get out a word. I realized it wasn’t physical. I figured out that my stutter,” Withers revealed to Rolling Stone. “And this isn’t the case for everyone — was caused by fear of the perception of the listener.”
5. Iggy Pop
Vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band The Stooges, Iggy Pop, suffers from a type of physical deformity called Scoliosis.
The condition has caused one of his legs to be an inch-and-a-half shorter than the other. He also has a sideways curvature of the spine and this affects his mobility.
During an interview the rocker explained that he now holds a cane because his “skeleton” is his “weak area.”
4. Ray Charles
Regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, Ray Charles gradually lost his sight and by the age of seven he was blind. It is presumed that glaucoma was the cause of his sight loss.
Still, his mother encouraged him to take up music, Charles learning to play the piano along with brass and wind instruments. He became one of the 20th century’s most legendary performers.
“I don’t remember much about what it was like to see.” Charles explained to Esquire magazine. “The main thing I remember is my mom, how she looked. And I remember colors.”
3. Hank Williams
Country star Hank Williams was born with spina bifida occulta. The disorder affected his spine and caused the artist a lifetime of chronic back pain.
Initially, his condition didn’t hold him back, Williams writing and recording numerous classics such as ‘Hey Good Lookin’’ and ‘I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry’ whilst also continuing to tour relentlessly.
Yet in 1951, Williams took a fall during a hunting trip and his pain soon became unbearable. Following an unsuccessful surgery, he grew addicted to morphine and alcohol before tragically dying at the age of just 29.
2. Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez has a condition called Lupus which causes her joint and muscle pain along with extreme tiredness. Yet she has battled through her ailment to become highly successful.
She is a songwriter, actress and businesswoman who has won numerous accolades including a Billboard Music Award, two Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe.
“I was diagnosed with Lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy.” Gomez told Billboard in 2015, explaining that treatments forced her out of the spotlight and even sparked rumors of addiction. “That’s what my break was really about.”
1. Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder was born prematurely and spent the early days of his life in an incubator. Through an excess of oxygen, it ultimately caused him to lose his sight.
Like his hero Ray Charles, Wonder ventured into the world of music and went on to master several instruments including the drums, piano and harmonica. He was eventually discovered by Smokey Robinson, a member of The Miracles, and by age eleven was part of Motown Records.
“It’s played a part.” Wonder revealed to the New York Times, when asked how much blindness had influenced his music. “In that I’m able to use my imagination to go places, to write words about things I’ve heard people talk about. In music and in being blind, I’m able to associate what people say with what’s inside me.”