“Gentle on My Mind: In Sickness and in Health With Glen Campbell”
Kim Campbell
Nelson Books, $28.99
When Kim Woollen met Glen Campbell in 1981, she was 22, had never been married and was one of the Radio City Rockettes. He was 45, three times divorced, an American superstar and in a highly unstable
on-again, off-again relationship with country music star Tanya Tucker. Their first date was a dream-come-true for Woollen — until Campbell said something that spoiled it.
She would have been out of his life forever, but Campbell was so contrite she gave him a second chance. That second chance was the start of a relationship — the couple married in 1982 — that endured, through some wonderfully good times and some very bad times, until his death from advanced Alzheimer’s disease in 2017.
Kim Campbell shares the story of their life together in the new book “Gentle on My Mind: In Sickness and in Health With Glen Campbell,” which was released Tuesday. It is a story of faith and inspiration, a page-turner in the best sense of the word.
Kim describes the lifestyles of the rich-and-famous social scene that Glen Campbell brought her into: concerts, awards shows, jet-set traveling, hotel suites and luxurious homes. Campbell was a loving and generous man; the first time he sent her to a luxury store with instructions to “get something to wear” to the Grammys and the American Music Awards, she returned home fearing she’d spent too much and found him surprised that she hadn’t spent more.
Kim also describes their struggle with Campbell’s alcoholism and his addiction to cocaine. The couple’s commitment to each other, and their deep Christian faith, kept them together through it all.
Spoiler alert! Campbell beat both cocaine and alcohol.
Kim tells Campbell’s backstory as he apparently told it to her: born poor, one of
12 children in a home where love was abundant but discipline was brutal. Started playing the guitar at 4. Quit school at 14. Moved to Los Angeles in 1960 to become a session musician. Pursued a parallel career as a recording artist throughout the 1960s.
Winning four Grammy Awards in 1967 — two each for “Gentle on My Mind” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” — launched his career as
a country music and pop star.
In 2010 Glen and Kim Campbell hit a problem their love couldn’t beat. Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He went public with the news that he was terminally ill, announced that a final “Goodbye Tour” would continue as long as he was able to perform, and that he would record a final album.
The couple also went to Washington and talked with the leaders
of both political parties about the
human and financial costs of Alzheimer’s on the U.S.
When Campbell played the Blaisdell Concert Hall in September 2012, everything went as planned. It was a wonderful goodbye to Hawaii.
The “Goodbye Tour” ended three months later. Campbell made his final recordings two months after that.
The final chapters document Campbell’s steady decline in heartbreaking detail. Eventually, he was placed in a specially designed care facility. While Kim was doing everything Campbell needed done, and arranging for professional 24/7 care, two of his children — she declines to name them — filed a lawsuit to remove her as his conservator and legal guardian. When Kim won the suit, she was subjected to online harassment and death threats.
Campbell went to “a better place” on Aug. 8, 2017.
Looking back at their life together, Kim closes with these words: “With all the wonders of his spirit still alive, Glen remains gentle on my mind.”
