David Cassidy made his battle with dementia public after forgetting lyrics from a song he was performing on stage Saturday at a show in southern California – lyrics that he’s been singing for almost 50 years.
“I was in denial, but a part of me always knew this was coming,” the 66-year-old actor and musician told People magazine.
During the show, he told the audience that he would be retiring, said Fox News – sentiments that he reiterated when talking with People magazine.
“I want to focus on what I am, who I am and how I’ve been without any distractions,” he said. “I want to love. I want to enjoy life.”
“I love being able to come back to the place that, despite the fact I wasn’t born here, for the most part this is my home,” he told the crowd during his show on Saturday. “And this is where I became a television star, a rock and roll star.”
Cassidy is widely known for his role in the 1970s hit series, “The Partridge Family.”
In 1978, Cassidy received an Emmy nomination for his appearance on “Police Story,” People magazine noted. The last time he appeared on the small screen was in 2013, when he was seen on an episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
The ‘70s heartthrob found himself in rehab back in 2014 for substance abuse, which came after a DUI in 2010 and two related arrests in 2013 and 2014, Fox News noted.
Cassidy isn’t the first person in his family to suffer from dementia.
His mother, Broadway star Evelyn Ward, died in 2013 at the age of 89 due to struggles with dementia.
“In the end, the only way I knew she recognized me is with one single tear that would drop from her eye every time I walked into the room…I feared I would end up that way,” he said as he recalled his mother’s final days.