The music world has already been marred with some very sad news this week, including the tragic passing of Yothu Yindi frontman M Yunupingu and soul singer Sharon Jones delaying her touring and album release plans while she undergoes cancer treatment, and now another more ill fate has befallen another prominent musical figure.
Jonathan Poneman, the co-founder of influential indie label Sub Pop Records, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, revealing in an interview with The Seattle Times that he’d been struggling with the disease for many years before he was recently turned to doctors by a friend and radiologist who urged him to seek a proper medical diagnosis for his fatigue and troubles with his right hand.
The 53-year-old label head founded Sub Pop with Bruce Pavitt in 1986, and the Seattle, Washington-based label went on to find success during the grunge boom as the home to Mudhoney and a young Nirvana, before finding continued success with the likes of The Postal Service, The Shins, Fleet Foxes, and more. But in recent years Poneman found himself becoming ‘too mellow’.
“At first there was this lumbering slowness,” the label co-founder tells The Seattle Times. “But it became even more so, like the Tin Man without any oil.” Poneman also told of having troubles with the the seeming degeneration of the right hand side of his body, including the use of his right hand. It took a New York meeting with a friend who was a radiologist to get Poneman to go to the doctors, “I realised then… I can’t deny this anymore.”
Tests confirmed that he had Parkinson’s disease, but Poneman says the results brought a “a sigh of relief.” Speaking out and explaining his condition to bring hope to those suffering, showing there is life to be enjoyed beyond Parkinson’s disease, which Poneman describes as a strage kind of blessing. “I can imagine people struggling with this and it knocking them down – I accept that I have this disease, but that doesn’t give me the right to be passive.” – Jonathan Poneman, Sub Pop
“My love of life and its precious elements became more vivid at the thought of seeing them fade away,” he explains. “As ironic as it sounds, I am truly grateful to the disease.” With the realisation of his new condition came a newfound sense of life. “Mindfulness,” as the Sub Pop co-founder puts it. “Anything that leads a human being to that kind of living can’t be all bad. In fact, it’s pretty good.”
“I can imagine people struggling with this and it knocking them down,” he adds. “I accept that I have this disease, but that doesn’t give me the right to be passive.”
Being diagnosed with Parkinson’s hasn’t stopped Poneman from his hard working duties at the Seattle based indie label, but you won’t see him entrenched in a chair behind his office desk, but a fixed bike for exercise to help lessen the symptoms of Parkinson’s. He can also still be found out in the clubs and venues scouting for new sounds and music. The major change being he’s “less inclined to go up front, because I am a human bowling pin.”
Poneman is also prepping the label’s 25th Anniversary concert, the Sub Pop Silver Juiblee. A hometown mini-festival taking place in Seattle’s Gerogetown on Saturday 13th July that will feature a roster of the influential label’s best and brightest, including sets from Mudhoney, Father John Misty, Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs), J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), and more.
The Silver Juiblee is a free, public one-day music festival, but attendees are encouraged to grab a Sub Pop branded Tote Bag – not just for fashionable purposes – but because the $5 cost doubles as a donation to benefit local charities, including the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation and radio station 90.3FM KEXP.
