Young at Heart Page #7

Today I'm off to meet Fred Knittle,

a colorful personality in the chorus...

until a heart attack five years ago

forced him to stop.

- An old cowpoke went riding out

one dark and windy day -

- Upon the trail he res ted

as he went along his way -

- When al I at once a mighty herd

of red-eyed cows he saw -

- A-ridin' through the ragged sky -

- And up a cloudy draw -

- Yippee-yi-ay

Yippee-yi-oh -

- Ghost riders in the sky --

That was the song that we sang

that started the show off.

That seemed to go over pretty well.

We did that all over Europe.

We went from continent to continent

until I became incontinent...

and then we didn't go any further.

There's something about Fred's personality

onstage that makes it all work.

You know, he's-

he's really got this- this charm...

th-th-that comes out of him

when he sings.

And so he's a- You know,

he's- he's pretty magnetic.

[ Stephen ]

Why do you need the oxygen?

I have congestive heart failure...

and it builds up fluids

in the lungs, in the legs.

Um, and so the lungs,

when it's filled with fluid...

you have to have a supplement...

and that's what the oxygen is for-

to replace the space

that I don't have anymore.

That's from years of smoking

and carousing and so forth.

- A lot of carousing, huh?

- A lot of carousing. Right.

Bob Cilman says I have

a high and a low voice.

Um, the high is for ballads

and things like that...

and then occasionally

he'll want me to do a low voice.

- Um-

- How low can you go?

Well-

- Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep -

- So beware -

[ Pitch Lowers ]

- Be-e-e-e-ware -

- [ Stephen Laughing]

- A little bit. I get it down there.

Again, it all depends

how loose my shorts are.

[ Narrator] Fred's partner

in the new song is Bob Salvini...

whose solo of "Every Breath You Take"

where he played a nurse...

was one of the highlights

of the chorus back in the '90s.

[ Bob ]

- Every breath you take -

- Every move you make -

- -- [ Continues ]

- [ Stephen ] Four years ago, at the age of7 1...

Bob developed spinal meningitis.

Within hours his condition

had worsened so rapidly...

that a priest was called in

to deliver the last rites.

[ Bob ]

- I'll be watching you -

[ Stephen ]

How close were you to dying?

Oh, very close.

I wasn't supposed to live.

The doctor told her, in so many words,

he's probably gonna die.

Boy, it sounded so bleak.

I had-

It was shocking to me that he made it back

from what he went through.

He really sounded like

he was on the verge of death.

And, you know, he has never

come back to us since then.

From that point on it was hell.

I couldn't see. I couldn't hear.

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