In Honor & Memory of McCanna Anthony
“Mac” Sinise
On February 27, 2017, our son Mac joined the team at Gary Sinise Foundation as our Assistant Manager of Education & Outreach. I was thrilled and excited to have him come on board to help me with the mission. His job duties included handling and digitizing our Gary Sinise Foundation archive and managing our Education & Outreach Center, which included hosting events, giving tours, stewarding donors, and outreach with the military service members, veterans, first responders and families who were recipients of our support. With his engaging and upbeat personality, he inspired folks through our Gary Sinise: A Call-to-Action exhibit in the Education & Outreach Center, and he assisted in everyday activities, and local and national events also. As a father, having him as part of the Foundation was a gift. He was a great representative who cared about the mission and those we serve, and I was eager to watch him grow with the organization.
I was always happy to have him join me on the road, and I could see how much joy and pride he shared in our mission. Especially when he could be hands-on with those we serve, like at our Soaring Valor events honoring our nation's WWII heroes, and our Invincible Spirit Festivals, where we bring the Lt. Dan Band to uplift our wounded at military hospitals across the country.
Mac had been playing drums since he was nine years old and was an exceptional drummer. He would substitute for my drummer, Danny Gottlieb, when Danny was unavailable to play our Lt. Dan Band shows. Those were some great times, father and son rockin' out together for the troops.
The summer of 2018 was a particularly challenging time for our family. In June of that year, my wife Moira was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, and after surgery to remove lymph nodes, she began chemotherapy and radiation. Then, on August 8th, we found out that Mac was diagnosed with a very rare cancer called Chordoma. What was happening? What is Chordoma? I had never heard of this. And two cancer patients, mother and son, within two months of each other? A real punch in the gut. I went online to see what I could find. Chordoma is a one in a million cancer. Originating in the spine, Chordoma affects, on average, only 300 people in the U.S. per year. In 70% of the cases the initial tumor can be removed, and it is cured. But in 30% of the cases, perhaps about 90 people per year, the cancer returns.
Thankfully, after months of treatment, Moira went into remission and has been cancer-free ever since. With Mac, after surgery to remove the initial tumor in September of 2018, and another spine procedure in February 2019 to clear what looked like an infection, unfortunately a follow up scan in May of 2019 would show that his Chordoma had come back and was spreading. This began a long battle that disabled him more and more as time went on. The cancer fight was getting harder, but throughout most of 2019 he was still able to come to the GSF office, until a third spine surgery in November of that year.
While in recovery at home, he was still eager to contribute to the Foundation and he was excited to launch our Gary Sinise Foundation podcast. He was just getting started, completing two interviews, the first with our Gary Sinise Foundation video producer Kip Perry, and the second with yours truly. In January of 2020, the day before he went in for his 4th spine surgery, Mac and I sat down together for his GSF podcast interview with me. This would finish his work with Gary Sinise Foundation. That year, he knew he had to step away to fight his battle. He would have to focus full-time on recovery and rehab, as there would be a fifth spine surgery in June, along with radiation and continuing chemotherapy.
With Chordoma being such a rare form of cancer, there are very few medical centers doing research. During our long and challenging fight, we were blessed to have the support of the Chordoma Foundation. They are the only organization whose sole mission, 24/7, is to find a cure for this rare orphan cancer and beat Chordoma. In 2021, we created this “Team Mac” page so that friends and family asking how they could help support Mac could do so through encouraging messages, and by helping to raise funds for much-needed research to find treatments for Chordoma.
Mac was a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music. While in school, he continued his drumming and studied songwriting and composition. Now, due to his disability, as he could no longer play drums or piano, he had assumed that music was a thing of the past. But in early 2023, he started thinking about working on a piece of music called “Arctic Circles” that he had written in college but never finished. He asked me if I thought our pal Dan Myers, violinist and singer for my Lt. Dan Band, would help him work on it. I suggested he contact Dan. He did, and they started texting ideas back and forth, Mac working on the piece from his hospital bed at home or in his wheelchair. The cancer had paralyzed him from the chest down, but he still had limited use of his right arm, and fingers on his left hand. Being right-handed, he would strap a stylus to his right hand, and he could punch letters and notes into his phone or iPad. He also had a small keyboard he laid on his hospital bed table that he used to work on his music. In April of 2023, Dan recommended reaching out to our longtime friend and fellow bandmate, pianist Ben Lewis. Mac sent a chart of “Arctic Circles” to Ben, and they went back and forth shaping Mac's vision for the piece, with Ben recording piano versions of the composition and sending them to Mac for notes. Mac's name for “Arctic Circles” was inspired by the wintery nature shows he loved watching while lying in his hospital bed.
He had recently reconnected with an old friend from college, composer and arranger Oliver Schnee.
In June, Mac sent Oliver a scratch piano track of “Arctic Circles” that Ben had recorded. Oliver loved it. Mac asked if he would help him finish it and they went to work. With notes going back and forth and a lot of fine tuning, Oliver finished a stunningly beautiful arrangement.
Mac picked a date to record when he knew his sister Sophie was going to be in town. The session was scheduled for July 17, 2023, at the very famous Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. He financed the session with his own money, and Oliver and his father, legendary recording engineer and producer Bill Schnee, hired the contractor who pulled together some of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles. Bill lent his services on the mixing board. (Thank you, Bill).
With music so deep in his heart, unable to play drums now, Mac's mother Moira suggested he get a harmonica, which he did, and he started teaching himself how to play. I have a dear friend, Medal of Honor recipient Sammy L. Davis, who plays harmonica and tells a story of learning to play “Shenandoah” while in the jungles of Vietnam. I gave Mac a video of Sammy playing it, suggesting that Mac learn it. He did, and it was beautiful. Listening to him playing it, I suggested that he ask Oliver to do a string arrangement to back him up. As long as they would have the strings at the session for “Arctic Circles,” why not do “Shenandoah” also?
Both these pieces of music began a collaboration that expanded to a vision Mac had of doing an entire album of music entitled Resurrection & Revival, with a theme of bringing something that was old or unfinished back to life. Mac had three more originals and with more notes going back and forth between Oliver and Mac as they crafted the arrangements, they were now ready to go back into the studio. Two more sessions were scheduled for November 5th and 10th of 2023, this time in Nashville, to record the original pieces that Mac had written, and a group of songs that were special to him, featuring him on harmonica with members of the Lt. Dan Band. During our November 10th session at the legendary Blackbird Studio, Mac celebrated his 33rd birthday. He especially wanted to share it with my band. It was a very special day for him, and he asked me to play bass on one of the tunes, a cover of the old American folk song “Red River Valley,” with him playing harmonica. It is a song his mother used to sing to him and his sisters when they were little. That day was indeed a special day for the two of us.
The week the album went to press, Mac lost his battle with cancer. He died on January 5, 2024 at 3:25pm, and was laid to rest on January 23rd.
Like any family experiencing such a loss, we are heartbroken and have been managing as best we can. As parents, it is so difficult losing a child. My heart goes out to all who have suffered a similar loss, and to anyone who has lost a loved one. We've all experienced it in some way. Over the years I have met so many families of our fallen heroes. It's heartbreaking, and it's just damn hard. Our family's cancer fight lasted for 5 ½ years, and it became more and more challenging as time went on. While our hearts ache at missing him, we are comforted in knowing that Mac is no longer struggling, and inspired and moved by how he managed it. He fought an uphill battle against a cancer that has no cure, but he never quit trying. Mac loved movies, and we always told him he reminded us of the soldier at the end of the extraordinary film 1917, running through the battlefield, bombs going off all around him, knocking him down one after the other, yet he keeps getting back up, refusing to quit and keeps running forward.
I am so blessed, fortunate, and proud to be his dad.
I had not spoken publicly about Mac's challenging fight until this recent interview with Raymond Arroyo, done live on December 29, 2023. But in the interview, while I mention his health challenges, leaving out the details, you will see the focus is on Mac and his inspirational music, all put together during those final months of his life, as he was always focusing on what he could do, and never on what he couldn't. Mac was living out a dream, bringing it to reality with his collaborating partner, Oliver. It was incredibly motivating and therapeutic for him, and he was so excited to see it all come together. I did this interview live in a satellite truck they had sent to the house. While I was sitting in the truck doing the interview in the driveway, Mac and Moira were inside the house watching. When I was finished, I walked into the house and Mac was just beaming. Smiling ear to ear, so happy to see his music being featured on national television.
His music videos can be seen in their entirety on Mac Sinise YouTube. Included with the video of “Arctic Circles” is a special text message from Mac that I found on his phone after his death. He intended to post it as he was so happy to share this piece of music with you all.
The album, Mac Sinise: Resurrection and Revival, is now available. To order the album, click here.
On December 30, the day after I did the interview with Raymond, we had to take Mac to the emergency room for what would be his final trip to the hospital. He was having trouble getting his breath and after stabilizing him, he was admitted. I stayed with him as I had done many times before. During the first few days, I thought this would be another trip where we get things under control and head home. He was showing the interview to hospital staff on his phone and was so happy when they would go to his YouTube Channel to see the music videos. He was smiling and filled with joy when he would hear them sharing how moved they were by the music. But the days got tougher, and on January 5th, with the family all around him, he let go. His battle with Chordoma was over and he was at peace.
Our story is not unique. No one escapes cancer. It affects us all, as every one of us in this life knows someone, personally or otherwise, who has faced this awful disease. And that summer of 2018, being hit with two different cancers at the same time, was not easy. But over the years, through my mission to support our troops and families, I have met the most extraordinary people who have persevered and overcome the most difficult heartbreaking circumstances, and I have learned from them and been inspired by them. Knowing them gave me strength. Perhaps it was God's way of preparing me to meet our own difficult fight, having met and watched so many courageous families confronting what life had thrown at them.
In sharing our story, we hope to shine a little bit of light on what has been a difficult time for us as Mac was truly a light for all of us. An incredible inspiration to those who knew and loved him, he faced his battle with grace, courage, and love. Even with one setback after another, he never stopped living and learning, creating, and giving, and loving. He loved all our family. His wonderful sisters, Sophie and Ella and their children, and while I worked hard to manage the day-to-day medical care, his beautiful mother Moira was his constant companion. He loved her so. His grandmother, his aunts and uncles, his cousins, his brothers in law, his caregivers Lulu and Mimi. There are so many friends he loved and who loved him.
And Mac loved working at the Foundation, and he loved and appreciated his colleagues there, as they have continued the mission each day, helping to carry the load so I could focus on these family challenges.
Our family is grateful for all those who have helped us, loved us, and supported us in this fight.
Mac was a man who loved his Catholic faith, and there is no doubt that his strong faith sustained him through the awful 5 ½ year battle with this crippling Chordoma cancer.
“You have made us for yourself oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Mac's favorite quote from St. Augustine.
He gave his family and friends so much during his 33 years, and he accomplished great things in those final months. With a glorious teaming of two old pals from college, his vision for this beautiful music was realized.
Mac's inspiring parting gift to us.
Thank you, Mac. You did it. Resurrection & Revival will live on. And so will you. In our hearts forever.
We were blessed to have you in our lives as son, brother, and friend...and we will miss you and love you for eternity.
-Gary Sinise
Proud father of Mac Sinise
