Tank is sharing some tough news with his fans. The singer, whose real name is Durrell Babbs, revealed that he is going deaf in a post he shared on Wednesday.
“So I’m going through something right now and I want to use my situation to encourage your situation. I’m going completely deaf in my right ear and I’m kind of losing sound in my left,” Tank, 45, began. “I’m dizzy, can’t walk a straight line. All of this out of nowhere. Don’t know how or why. I’m seeing a doctor, got MRI’s going on and medication and, you know, all of that.”
“But, it still hasn’t given me a reason to give up. It still hasn’t given me a reason to stop feeling like I can do and be everything that I’ve set out to be,” he continued. “The goals are still the same: to be great, to be the greatest. And I want to say that to you too. No matter what you’re going through, no matter where you find yourself. Whether your body is failing you, whether your mind is failing you, whether your spirit is failing you: keep going, keep pushing.”
He added that he would document his process and show people his fight. The GRAMMY-nominated artist received a slew of uplifting and supporting messages, with his wife, Zena Foster, even jokingly commenting, “I love you babe and don’t worry I can talk louder.”
On Thursday, the “Maybe I Deserve” crooner shared an update telling his followers that he had an MRI and “didn’t see anything crazy” connected to his brain function. However after the tests, he found out that he did have a deviated septum, which he will get “fixed” and “taken care of.”
“Back to the ear. This ear is actually worse. I tested lower today in terms of the things I can hear,” he said. “Hopefully that starts to turn around quickly and I can get back out there and do what I do, man. I love what I do.”
He also told fans to celebrate life and tell him and people you admire their music or what they do. Tank encouraged his followers to not wait until he’s “deaf or in a wheelchair” to reach out to him and “appreciate us in the moment.”
Artists like Monica, LeToya Luckett, Colby O’Donis and sent him prayers and well wishes.
