He picked up a bass in 1977 and helped soundtrack a generation.
Now, at 70, Bruce Foxton is picking up a very different fight.
The founding bassist of The Jam — the band behind Going Underground, A Town Called Malice, and Down in the Tube Station at Midnight — has just told the world he has Parkinson's disease.
And the way he broke the news? Pure Foxton.
No drama. No self-pity. Just a quiet line on Facebook that hit like a bassline:
"I'm determined to do that as well as I possibly can."
For weeks, fans had noticed something was off.
Shows were being cancelled.
Rumours were swirling online.
Then Bruce finally spoke up.
The brutal summer heat, he said, plus a stubborn chest infection, had "knocked me for six."
But underneath it all was something bigger — a diagnosis he traces back to complications from old cancer treatment.
Life catches up with rock stars too.
Quick primer, because half the internet gets this wrong:
And that last point is exactly the door Bruce is walking through.
Here's the part that stopped me.
He says the right meds have given him "another chance to carry on doing what I love and what I live for."
Not retirement.
Not a farewell tour.
Just… keep going.
👉 "I'm going to keep going and playing live for as long as I'm able to do it."
The Jam split in 1982, at the peak of their powers.
While Paul Weller went off to form The Style Council, Foxton kept the flame alive — solo albums, touring, and later reviving the band's spirit as From The Jam.
Four decades later, he's still on the road.
Still plugging in.
Still turning up.
Parkinson's changes the tempo of a life.
It doesn't get to write the ending.
And Bruce Foxton, of all people, knows a thing or two about playing through the noise.
That's all for now!
