Michael J. Fox Gets Support From Country Music Stars for a Great Cause

Some of the biggest names in country music turned up in style to support Michael J. Fox's foundation.

For Parkinson's Awareness Month, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research headed to Nashville, Tennessee, to host a fundraising event called A Country Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's (a play on the annual A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's gala) yesterday, April 26.

The event featured a sit-down dinner followed by musical performances by Brad Paisley and Little Big Town, and country singer-songwriter Caitlyn Smith. The evening ended by honoring the country back Alabama's co-founder Jeff Cook, who died last year after a decade-long battle with the disease.

Fox, of course, was also in attendance, appropriately for the occasion in a countrified embroidered button-up shirt. The retired actor, 61, made the rounds to greet the evening's guests and foundation's donors, all of whom have played an integral role in turning the Back to the Future star's foundation into the world's largest nonprofit funder for Parkinson's research.

Little Big Town has a personal connection to the foundation, as founding member Kimberly Schlapman's mother has been battling the degenerative disease for at least 15 years, with the singer calling Fox "an angel to families like ours" on a recent visit to Today.

Paisley, for his part, is a longtime fan of Fox, and has participated in previous fundraising events as well, even performing with the actor on stage back in 2017.

According to The Tennessean, organizers estimate that about $500,000 was raised among 500 or so attendees—money that will go toward grants to ensure promising research is well-funded in the search for a cure.

Fox has been living with Parkinson's since 1991, founding his charitable organization in 2000.

Earlier this month, he celebrated a major breakthrough in Parkinson's research that may soon lead to improved diagnostics, which may even be able to diagnose children long before symptoms ever develop.