BALTIMORE — He’s a local gospel music legend, and a pastor in East Baltimore. Yet, a rare disease almost silenced him forever.
Today, Eric Scott can only sing and talk at a whisper. For decades, he traveled the world singing, in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. First, in college as a member of the Morgan State University Choir in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then, with his own group, Eric Scott and Company.
At AFRAM this year, the City of Baltimore recognized him as a local gospel legend.
“We would travel up and down the East Coast, and we were blessed to go overseas and minister several times,” Scott says. “So, it’s been a great journey.”
However, his music career, and his life, almost ended in 2014. Over a few months, he went from being simply hoarse to having a hard time breathing. After a trip to the emergency room, his doctors did a biopsy, and the result was something he’d never heard of.
“Amyloidosis,” he says. “And it’s a rare disease in the world. Two percent in the world get this disease. Less than that are men. Less than that are African American men. So I’m this rare case.”
Amyloidosis occurs when protein builds up, in Scott’s case, his throat. It’s an autoimmune disease, it’s incurable and it’s quite painful.
“You can see the cords trying to vibrate,” Scott says. “I’m talking now and it’s vibrating but if I try to sing or talk loud, the amyloids just begin to bleed.”
Eleven surgeries, first at GBMC and then at Hopkins. The growths returned each time.
And each time, he went right back to church. He couldn’t sing, though, and at one point, his wife recalls, he couldn’t speak at all.
“There was one part of the journey where there was no sound,” says Marsha Scott. “So, to be a pastor of a congregation, and I’m getting emotional just thinking about it, and you’re used to singing and playing and preaching your Sunday sermons.”
Then the Scotts heard about an experimental treatment in Boston. Doctors there were able to stop the amyloids from growing. After ten rounds of radiation in 2019, he rang the bell. The treatment was a success.
“It won’t be any worse, thank God,” he says. “It’s frozen in time.”
His airway is still compromised, a third of what it should be. He’s back behind the keys, and back in the pulpit. His wife of 31 years helps deliver his sermons. She stands beside him in the pulpit and when his voice gives out, she steps in.
“I’m going to come alongside you,” she told her husband, “and do what we have to do to keep the church going forward, to keep our children and our family moving forward.”
She’s written a new book about their experience: “How to Win at Everyday Life.”
“I wanted to write our story of overcoming, but I also wanted to tell others or inspire others with tips, tools and strategies on how to overcome, how to win,” she says.
Scott’s still active in the gospel industry, songwriting and mentoring the next generation. His group is still recording, now with the adult children of the members he started out with. The disease may have restricted his voice -- it hasn’t stopped the music.
