Indigo Girls Receive Outpouring of Love After Emily Saliers Tearfully Acknowledges Two Incurable Conditions Will Affect Vocals on Tour
The Indigo Girls have been receiving an outpouring of support and love from fans and famous admirers, after the duo released a video statement in which Emily Saliers got exceptionally frank about how two incurable physical conditions she’s experiencing will adversely affect her vocals on their upcoming tour.
In a clip posted to their Instagram account, with Amy Ray sitting beside her, Saliers talked about how she has been diagnosed with cervical dystonia and an essential tremor — both of which have hampered her ability to sing in a clear and constant tone. Nonetheless, they are forging ahead with the tour, but with full advance warning to the audience that they will notice the difference.
“Unfortunately there’s no cure for these, so the honest fact is that my voice will not be what it was,” Saliers said, briefly becoming tearful amid the otherwise matter-of-fact explanation of what she is dealing with. “That’s really hard for me. … I hate that I’m only 62 and it’s happened to me, but we are both aging. People age. We are trying to look at this organically as a process of our own aging. … I just hope that you can have some grace with my struggles for this particular touring year. We’re gonna work hard to make it good, and then whatever the future holds, we’ll see. … We want to bring you the best show that we possibly can.”
Saliers talked about the medical treatment she has been getting to mitigate the effects of these two conditions on her singing. For the upcoming tour, she said they have been working on altering arrangements, boosting the support they already got from background singers like band mainstay Lucy Wainwright Roche, and making use of “all the modern digital tools that front-of-house engineers use to help singers sound better.” (A huge percentage of modern pop artists use live tuning as part of their concert arsenal, though very few have ever owned up to it.)
Reaction to this revelation was as emotional and positive as might be expected. And their fellow performing artists were among the first to chime in in the comments with applause for how boldly and proactively the Indigo Girls were handling this tough situation.
“What you offer the world is beyond bodies,” wrote Sara Bareilles on Instagram. “Thank you for sharing whatever you have to share. It will be received with so much love and gratitude.”
Posted superfan Brandi Carlile: “This is why these two have been my heroes and the only reason I ever picked up a guitar. Being an @indigogirls fan is a life-long privilege. Indigo Girls fans already have an evolved perspective on aging and a deeper understanding of how badass vulnerability really is. This is because of the music they have given us. Wisdom breeds wisdom.
“To say we have Emily’s back is the understatement of the century,” Carlile continued. “If you love to sing, Emily, sing. We will be there singing with you. We are the luckiest fans in the world – we know our verses, and we know the words to every song. Let’s sing them back at the Indigo Girls louder than ever.”
The Indigo Girls’ video begins with Saliers saying:
“We’re coming to you from Atlanta where we’re been practicing and looking forward to our tour dates that we have for 2026, and we needed to make y’all aware of something. To those of you in our community who have supported us all these years, we’re so grateful for you, and I wanted to be completely forthcoming. We both have talked about this and are in support of each other…
“Many of you have noticed that my voice — maybe all of you have noticed, it’s pretty noticeable — that my voice is not what it once was. So I wanted to share with you that I’ve been diagnosed with two movement disorders. One is called cervical dystonia with torticollis, which basically is in the part of my brain that controls movement. And in other people with this condition, the brain sends signals to tighten muscles… So because of the cervical dystonia, my, head twists to the right and is misaligned. It can cause shaking of the head. It’s impossible for me to hold my head centrally without shaking, things like that. So structurally, obviously, that is problematic for this whole throat area.
“But the other diagnosis, which is harder in fact for me, is an essential tremor. And the essential tremor causes involuntary shakes or movement, and it affects all the parts of my singing apparatus, the larynx, the pharyngeal muscles, my jaw and my diaphragm from which I get all the air for singing. So I’m unable to make the connections muscularly and structurally because of the essential tremor. What else the essential tremor does is give me this — I am gonna call it horrible, because it’s horrible to me — vibrato that I never used to have. I am completely physically unable to hold a straight tone the way I used to.
“And this is what you, our community, have come to, I think, appreciate and love about some of our harmonies is the way we can hold long straight tones together. So I want to give you a heads up about that, in full transparency. I’m doing everything that I can know and that the medical community has advised me to mitigate the symptoms of these two disorders. So that includes therapeutic massage, physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture…. I get Botox shots in my neck and shoulders every three months. That’s sort of the standard line of treatment for these disorders. And I’m also seeing a vocal coach who is an expert in movement disorders for singers, particularly essential tremor.
“Unfortunately there’s no cure for these, so the honest fact is that my voice will not be what it was. That’s really hard for me. Amy’s been super supportive, and we want you to know that as we get ready for these shows, we are doing everything we can to make the songs sound as good as they can possibly sound or ever sound, which includes all the modern digital tools that front-of-house engineers use to help singers sound better. So we’ll be using those and we’ll be working on harmony parts”. Lucy, Wayne, Wright Roach and Lyric and Jeff Fielder will be joining us. We’ll be singing some harmonies.” with the backup-singing musicians. “There may be some new arrangements…
“We wanted together to let you know that this has been going on. I’ve had this diagnosis for a while, but as I say, the conditions get incrementally worse over time. … I hate that I’m only 62 and it’s happened to me, but we are both aging. People age. We are trying to look at this organically as a process of our own aging.
“There are no words to articulate our gratitude for you, our community, who has been with us through our activism and through all the albums and through even our personal struggles through all the years. I just hope that you can have some grace with my struggles for this particular touring year. We’re gonna work hard to make it good, and then whatever the future holds, we’ll see. … We want to bring you the best show that we possibly can. And unfortunately this is a condition that can’t be reversed or mitigated unless there’s some medical breakthrough that hasn’t happened yet. So that’s where we are.”
At this point, Ray added her thoughts.
“We’re just reviewing all the songs. It’s interesting because there’s a lot of things I need to work on, too, and so we’re picking out the strongest songs… You know,we’re not changing things drastically. Basically, we’re bringing Lucy (Wainwright Roche) in a little bit more and that helps support us. And then we are just practicing together to make sure we’re singing together and blending as much as we can in the best way. So we’re doing the work because we love the music and we love you guys. And we don’t wanna just say, ‘Oh, we’re not gonna do it anymore because of this.’ We just want to keep playing and do our best, and I feel like y’all are the best audience ever. And we’re sort of as a community, you know, all going through things. So, so we’re gonna hang together, you know, and just do our thing. And the central message of love and self-esteem and activism and all that, it’s therem and that’s what we want to share.”
“It’s heavy and it’s life,” said Saliers. “We are just telling you because we’re gonna go through this year touring, and we don’t want it to be this thing that people are talking about, that we’re not talking about. Because we expect you guys to believe in yourself. and we want to believe in ourselves. So if we can’t play all your requests, it’s not because we don’t want to, we’re just picking the songs, as Amy said, that work the best. And we hope we can bring you joy and that we can all enjoy these. I mean, I know we all need the bonding, galvanizing power of music together.”
From the response, it seems clear that few if any fans will hold the alteration of arrangements in these shows against them. The message was met with a torrent of enthusiasm for the Indigo Girls carrying on. And some of their contemporaries led the way in the online onset of praise for their honesty and perseverance.
Wrote singer Chely Wright: “You are the definition of authenticity, courage and grace.”
Said Jennifer Nettles: “Forever in both of your corners! Forever a fan! Forever your friend. Your whole community of fans and friends are with you and I will be in the front row clapping the loudest and singing to the top of my lungs!! Your music sings and grows and evolves right along with life. Ever transforming. Thank you for your hearts and support of each other. You are inspiration to us all. See you on the road!!!”
And, posted Glennon Doyle: “Your audience has been aging too, Emily and Amy. We’re entering our Indigo Crones era with you. So much has changed – around us and on us and in us. But you haven’t. You’ve been with us the whole time- writing us through, leading us forward, singing us home. We’re not home yet, so you can’t stop singing. We won’t either. Lead the way Emily- show us how to sing while we shake. There might not be a more important thing to show us in this moment. We love you, Amy and Emily. See you on stage.”
The tour, announced three weeks ago, begins April 24 in Athens, Ohio, and runs through a Sept. 13 closer in Evanston, Illinois. One of the early dates is a May 14 gig in Los Angeles at the Bellwether. They will be opening for Brandi Carlile at the Gorge in Washington state on May 29 as part of a star-studded bill their famous acolyte has put together.
In a clip posted to their Instagram account, with Amy Ray sitting beside her, Saliers talked about how she has been diagnosed with cervical dystonia and an essential tremor — both of which have hampered her ability to sing in a clear and constant tone. Nonetheless, they are forging ahead with the tour, but with full advance warning to the audience that they will notice the difference.
“Unfortunately there’s no cure for these, so the honest fact is that my voice will not be what it was,” Saliers said, briefly becoming tearful amid the otherwise matter-of-fact explanation of what she is dealing with. “That’s really hard for me. … I hate that I’m only 62 and it’s happened to me, but we are both aging. People age. We are trying to look at this organically as a process of our own aging. … I just hope that you can have some grace with my struggles for this particular touring year. We’re gonna work hard to make it good, and then whatever the future holds, we’ll see. … We want to bring you the best show that we possibly can.”
Saliers talked about the medical treatment she has been getting to mitigate the effects of these two conditions on her singing. For the upcoming tour, she said they have been working on altering arrangements, boosting the support they already got from background singers like band mainstay Lucy Wainwright Roche, and making use of “all the modern digital tools that front-of-house engineers use to help singers sound better.” (A huge percentage of modern pop artists use live tuning as part of their concert arsenal, though very few have ever owned up to it.)
Reaction to this revelation was as emotional and positive as might be expected. And their fellow performing artists were among the first to chime in in the comments with applause for how boldly and proactively the Indigo Girls were handling this tough situation.
“What you offer the world is beyond bodies,” wrote Sara Bareilles on Instagram. “Thank you for sharing whatever you have to share. It will be received with so much love and gratitude.”
Posted superfan Brandi Carlile: “This is why these two have been my heroes and the only reason I ever picked up a guitar. Being an @indigogirls fan is a life-long privilege. Indigo Girls fans already have an evolved perspective on aging and a deeper understanding of how badass vulnerability really is. This is because of the music they have given us. Wisdom breeds wisdom.
“To say we have Emily’s back is the understatement of the century,” Carlile continued. “If you love to sing, Emily, sing. We will be there singing with you. We are the luckiest fans in the world – we know our verses, and we know the words to every song. Let’s sing them back at the Indigo Girls louder than ever.”
The Indigo Girls’ video begins with Saliers saying:
“We’re coming to you from Atlanta where we’re been practicing and looking forward to our tour dates that we have for 2026, and we needed to make y’all aware of something. To those of you in our community who have supported us all these years, we’re so grateful for you, and I wanted to be completely forthcoming. We both have talked about this and are in support of each other…
“Many of you have noticed that my voice — maybe all of you have noticed, it’s pretty noticeable — that my voice is not what it once was. So I wanted to share with you that I’ve been diagnosed with two movement disorders. One is called cervical dystonia with torticollis, which basically is in the part of my brain that controls movement. And in other people with this condition, the brain sends signals to tighten muscles… So because of the cervical dystonia, my, head twists to the right and is misaligned. It can cause shaking of the head. It’s impossible for me to hold my head centrally without shaking, things like that. So structurally, obviously, that is problematic for this whole throat area.
“But the other diagnosis, which is harder in fact for me, is an essential tremor. And the essential tremor causes involuntary shakes or movement, and it affects all the parts of my singing apparatus, the larynx, the pharyngeal muscles, my jaw and my diaphragm from which I get all the air for singing. So I’m unable to make the connections muscularly and structurally because of the essential tremor. What else the essential tremor does is give me this — I am gonna call it horrible, because it’s horrible to me — vibrato that I never used to have. I am completely physically unable to hold a straight tone the way I used to.
“And this is what you, our community, have come to, I think, appreciate and love about some of our harmonies is the way we can hold long straight tones together. So I want to give you a heads up about that, in full transparency. I’m doing everything that I can know and that the medical community has advised me to mitigate the symptoms of these two disorders. So that includes therapeutic massage, physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture…. I get Botox shots in my neck and shoulders every three months. That’s sort of the standard line of treatment for these disorders. And I’m also seeing a vocal coach who is an expert in movement disorders for singers, particularly essential tremor.
“Unfortunately there’s no cure for these, so the honest fact is that my voice will not be what it was. That’s really hard for me. Amy’s been super supportive, and we want you to know that as we get ready for these shows, we are doing everything we can to make the songs sound as good as they can possibly sound or ever sound, which includes all the modern digital tools that front-of-house engineers use to help singers sound better. So we’ll be using those and we’ll be working on harmony parts”. Lucy, Wayne, Wright Roach and Lyric and Jeff Fielder will be joining us. We’ll be singing some harmonies.” with the backup-singing musicians. “There may be some new arrangements…
“We wanted together to let you know that this has been going on. I’ve had this diagnosis for a while, but as I say, the conditions get incrementally worse over time. … I hate that I’m only 62 and it’s happened to me, but we are both aging. People age. We are trying to look at this organically as a process of our own aging.
“There are no words to articulate our gratitude for you, our community, who has been with us through our activism and through all the albums and through even our personal struggles through all the years. I just hope that you can have some grace with my struggles for this particular touring year. We’re gonna work hard to make it good, and then whatever the future holds, we’ll see. … We want to bring you the best show that we possibly can. And unfortunately this is a condition that can’t be reversed or mitigated unless there’s some medical breakthrough that hasn’t happened yet. So that’s where we are.”
At this point, Ray added her thoughts.
“We’re just reviewing all the songs. It’s interesting because there’s a lot of things I need to work on, too, and so we’re picking out the strongest songs… You know,we’re not changing things drastically. Basically, we’re bringing Lucy (Wainwright Roche) in a little bit more and that helps support us. And then we are just practicing together to make sure we’re singing together and blending as much as we can in the best way. So we’re doing the work because we love the music and we love you guys. And we don’t wanna just say, ‘Oh, we’re not gonna do it anymore because of this.’ We just want to keep playing and do our best, and I feel like y’all are the best audience ever. And we’re sort of as a community, you know, all going through things. So, so we’re gonna hang together, you know, and just do our thing. And the central message of love and self-esteem and activism and all that, it’s therem and that’s what we want to share.”
“It’s heavy and it’s life,” said Saliers. “We are just telling you because we’re gonna go through this year touring, and we don’t want it to be this thing that people are talking about, that we’re not talking about. Because we expect you guys to believe in yourself. and we want to believe in ourselves. So if we can’t play all your requests, it’s not because we don’t want to, we’re just picking the songs, as Amy said, that work the best. And we hope we can bring you joy and that we can all enjoy these. I mean, I know we all need the bonding, galvanizing power of music together.”
From the response, it seems clear that few if any fans will hold the alteration of arrangements in these shows against them. The message was met with a torrent of enthusiasm for the Indigo Girls carrying on. And some of their contemporaries led the way in the online onset of praise for their honesty and perseverance.
Wrote singer Chely Wright: “You are the definition of authenticity, courage and grace.”
Said Jennifer Nettles: “Forever in both of your corners! Forever a fan! Forever your friend. Your whole community of fans and friends are with you and I will be in the front row clapping the loudest and singing to the top of my lungs!! Your music sings and grows and evolves right along with life. Ever transforming. Thank you for your hearts and support of each other. You are inspiration to us all. See you on the road!!!”
And, posted Glennon Doyle: “Your audience has been aging too, Emily and Amy. We’re entering our Indigo Crones era with you. So much has changed – around us and on us and in us. But you haven’t. You’ve been with us the whole time- writing us through, leading us forward, singing us home. We’re not home yet, so you can’t stop singing. We won’t either. Lead the way Emily- show us how to sing while we shake. There might not be a more important thing to show us in this moment. We love you, Amy and Emily. See you on stage.”
The tour, announced three weeks ago, begins April 24 in Athens, Ohio, and runs through a Sept. 13 closer in Evanston, Illinois. One of the early dates is a May 14 gig in Los Angeles at the Bellwether. They will be opening for Brandi Carlile at the Gorge in Washington state on May 29 as part of a star-studded bill their famous acolyte has put together.