Just a day after revealing a rare blood-cancer diagnosis, Nashville artist Ashley Monroe is leaning on music and friends to start her fight. She’s teamed up with rising-country songstress Brittney Spencer for a heartfelt cover of Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do.”
Sharing the moving duet on social media Wednesday evening (July 14), the singer-songwriter and Pistol Annies member noted how special the song has been in her life. With delicate guitars drenched in reverb and the gentle beauty of their vocal harmonies, Monroe and Spencer deliver the track with soulful splendor, and Monroe says it means the world to her. After describing Spencer as a new friend, she says the dedication behind “Everything I Do” is an inspiration.
“I used to sing this song to [my son] Dalton every night when he was a baby,” she says. “I know this song hits Brittney deep too. It hits me even deeper now with what I posted yesterday. I hope you all feel this one as much as I do. Thank you again Brittney and Tyler [Cain] for doing this with me last week. I’m honored to know you both. I love of all you too. Your overwhelming support, love, and prayers has gotten me thru today.”
On Tuesday, Ashley Monroe announced she’d been diagnosed with a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia. She explained that the ordeal began when blood work revealed she was anemic, and then progressed until a blood marrow biopsy confirmed it was actually cancer. Luckily, Monroe says the condition is treatable and that she is optimistic about the road ahead, noting that she was scheduled to start chemotherapy with doctors at Vanderbilt University Medican Center on Wednesday. She also thanked her family and friends, and asked for prayers of support.
“I start chemo tomorrow. Seems like such a negative thing to say. Until I flip that doom feeling on its head and think, wow, I’m thankful I have an illness that is VERY live with-able,” she wrote. “I’m thankful there IS a treatment that actually works to fight what is causing harm to my body. THANKFUL for friends and family who have gathered around me praying and sending flowers and letting me lean on them during this super weird chapter of my life. Thankful for my angel son. Who I am fighting for the most.”
The troubling news arrives just a few months after Ashley Monroe released a new solo album, sharing the hypnotic indie-pop set, Rosegold. Her last country radio single was 2018’s “Hands On You,” and her success with the Pistol Annies — which also features Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley — includes a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Country Album (Interstate Gospel).