Paralyzed From the Chest Down, He Taught Himself Harmonica to Finish His Album
He finished the record two weeks before he died, designed the cover, and ordered 100 copies for friends, but never held one.
All There Is with Anderson Cooper · Gary Sinise: ‘The Hole In The Heart Is Always There’In early 2023, Mac Sinise decided to go back to a piece of music he had written years earlier in college. He had not been thinking about music at all. He was fighting cancer, and he could no longer play drums.
His father, Gary Sinise, remembers that year as "one of the great years for" his 33-year-old son Mac. Mac was paralyzed from the chest down after spine surgeries, and, as Sinise said, "he could still move his arms" but had limited movement in the fingers of his right hand. So Mac taught himself a new instrument, the harmonica, because he could still hold it and play.
That decision turned into an album. Mac worked through 2023 to record and arrange the old college piece and other music, and the record, called Resurrection and Revival, went to press two weeks before he died. He had asked for 100 vinyl copies to give to friends.
Mac also designed the cover himself. He used a 1917 photograph of his great-great-grandfather, then about 17 years old, training in Yuma, Arizona, to leave for World War I. The album went to press the week Mac went into the hospital. He never got to hold the finished record, though he had heard everything and seen the videos made around it.
One of the first songs he learned on harmonica was Amazing Grace. His father said Mac was deeply happy while making the music, even in a year filled with difficult medical setbacks. Talking about that work, the older Sinise lights up, and says the music was lighting his son up as well.
In an interview recorded during one of the sessions, Mac described his own surprise at what had happened. He said there were parts of his illness when he did not think he would survive to do anything resembling creativity or music. Then, by pushing through one stage, he realized he was still capable of making it.
“I never know what I’m capable of doing until I just actually try it,” Mac said.
He kept moving forward long enough to finish. The vinyl arrived too late for him to hold, but the music he taught himself to play in his final year is what remains.
Questions people ask
What kind of cancer did Mac have?
Chordoma is a very rare cancer that grows in the spine or at the base of the skull. It grows slowly and can cause severe pain and nerve damage, and in Mac’s case repeated spine surgeries left him paralyzed from the chest down.
How could he play harmonica if he was paralyzed?
He could move his arms and had enough grip to hold a small harmonica, though movement in his right hand was limited after his fifth spine surgery. The harmonica requires breath control and sliding the instrument rather than the fast, two-handed work of drums, which made it possible to learn.
Can people hear the album today?
Yes. After his death, his family released Resurrection and Revival and continued to share studio videos and interviews on his YouTube channel. His father has often played the harmonica recording of Amazing Grace when talking about him.