“I can’t button my pants, let alone play guitar”: Brian Setzer shares autoimmune disease struggles – and how he recovered

These past few years have been challenging for Brian Setzer. Last year, the guitarist and singer-songwriter revealed that he was battling a debilitating autoimmune disease that severely impacted his hands, and thus, his playing.

Now, Setzer has shared a health update on where things stand today.

“The best way I can describe it is, your nerves are like wires, and wires have sheathing on them,” Setzer tells Guitar Player. “Well, that’s coating has kind of eroded, so the wires malfunction. Basically, they lock up my hands and feet. I can’t move them. I can’t button my pants, let alone play guitar.

“It’s frustrating when you sit down and your hands do nothing. You really can’t take it for granted. Playing guitar is certainly on top, but so is holding a toothbrush, y’know?”

The guitarist sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota – a period which he describes as inherently transformative.

“I’m lying in there, and some guy next to me has got cancer,” he observes. After a year of treatment, he slowly but surely started his road to recovery.

“I was able to hold a guitar pick. That came first. It was, ‘All right, I’m more than halfway there.’ And then when I was able to fingerpick, when my fingers came back, then I had the whole package.”

However, Setzer's dream of returning to the stage was further delayed due to his unintended dependence on the over-the-counter herbal wellness tonic Kraton, which is a controlled substance in several states.

“It started innocently enough,” he relates. “They advertise it as a safe tonic to give you energy, and it’s not. So that just aggravated the whole thing. I just stopped everything and went away and cleaned out and came back fresh and clean.

“I had to go get everything out of my system, really. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about; if anyone has a problem, you go, and they take care of you. And thank God you can come back.”

And while there's no guarantee that the autoimmune disease won't impede his playing in the future, for now, Setzer is grateful that he can, once again, wield his beloved Gretsch G6120s. In fact, he has a full touring schedule ahead of him with the Stray Cats, kicking off in Las Vegas on July 24.

“What’s in the pipeline for me now is to play, that’s all. I’m just glad I can play, and so many places are waiting for us, and people want to see us, which I don’t take for granted,” he concludes.

In a recent Guitar World interview, Setzer revealed how he’s kept his writing skills sharp, and discussed the records that define his career.