John Driskell Hopkins is experiencing something he never expected, nor wanted, but he is finding hope amid it all. A founding member of the Zac Brown Band, Hopkins announced earlier this year that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS. The scary news came after Hopkins began experiencing some odd symptoms, symptoms that were especially problematic for the multi-instrumentalist.

“I think it was somewhere around the middle of 2019, I started noticing I couldn’t double-time as quickly,” Hopkins recalls to CBS News. “I could still do it, but I was starting to get angry at my right hand … I remember sitting on the bus, and talking to the guys, and saying, ‘Something’s wrong with my hand.'”

Hopkins went through a battery of tests before receiving the ALS diagnosis. The illness is a degenerative motor neuron disease, of which there is currently no cure.

“We were crying three times a day,” Hopkins says of coping with the devastating news. “I was just like, ‘I need to figure out what this means.'”

“Something like this never crossed our minds,” his wife Jennifer remarks, adding that they thought it might be attributed to getting older, as he approached his 50th birthday. “It was lose some weight, It was everything else.”

Hopkins remembers doing the famous ice bucket challenge in 2014 to raise money for ALS research, even though he had no knowledge of the disease at the time. But now that he is dealing with ALS, his primary focus is his wife and their three daughters.

“I worry about what it means to her, ’cause I don’t want to ruin her adult life,” the musician says of his wife. “This is the most beautiful woman in the world. She could find anyone tomorrow. But I don’t want to burden this one.”

“He’s my life, he and my girls. And he’s got so much to give,” Jennifer adds. “Truly the stars aligned for us to be together, and we’re meant to go through this together, whatever that brings, whatever that means. This is our story.”

Hopkins is painfully aware of the fact that, as his disease progresses, he may lose his ability to communicate. For that reason, he is working now to record words for a special computer program, which will allow him to still speak to his daughters, even if he no longer has the ability to vocalize his thoughts.

“I, as a father, don’t know what they need yet,” Hopkins shares. “And I want to be there. I want to impart some wisdom that I think they could probably use later.”

Hopkins also started his nonprofit, Hop On a Cure, which works to fund research in finding a cure for ALS, while also helping those directly impacted by the disease.

“I’m not a scientist. I’m not gonna be the one with the test tubes and the research,” Hopkins says. “I’m someone who has a platform that can explain, ‘I can’t play guitar like I used to. I might not be able to sing one day.’ And if I have an opportunity to spread the word that way, then that’s my responsibility.”

The 51-year-old is also working on new songs for his family, music that he admits he is having a hard time finishing.

“I’ve got three that I’m working on that are all in different ways directly related to what I’m going through,” Hopkins reveals. “I was writing a song that’s simply ‘I Love You Forever,'” he reveals, admitting, “I haven’t finished it — I can’t finish it.”

Find all of the Zac Brown Band’s music and tour updates here. All of Hopkins’ own music can be found at JohnDriskellHopkins.com.