When the Zac Brown Band‘s John Driskell Hopkins announced earlier this year that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS, the news affected not only him, but the rest of the band members as well. While there is no cure for the degenerative neurological disease, Hopkins has vowed to keep playing as long as possible — and support him as much as they can.

“We can’t allow ourselves to think about [Hopkins’ ALS diagnosis] as a super-defeating negative because we love him so much,” Zac Brown Band’s Coy Bowles told The Tennessean. “So our mind frame around it has been focused on making the most of the fact that he’s still out there with us.”

It was while Hopkins was playing that he noticed the beginning symptoms of what would ultimately be diagnosed as ALS.

“I think it was somewhere around the middle of 2019, I started noticing I couldn’t double-time as quickly,” Hopkins recalled to CBS News. “I could still do it, but I was starting to get angry at my right hand … I remember sitting on the bus, and talking to the guys, and saying, ‘Something’s wrong with my hand.’”

Hopkins started the nonprofit, Hop On A Cure, to raise money for research to help find a cure for the devastating illness. It’s a cause Hopkins takes seriously.

“One of the beautiful things about my condition, if God-willing it remains the way it is for a couple of years, is I have the energy and the presence to make a big impact,” Hopkins told People. “I’m ready to go. I can still play, I can still sing, I can still make records — and I want to do all that. I’m trying to record everything I can in the event that one day I might not be able to.”

The Zac Brown Band, who will perform for the televised New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, recently added Caroline Jones as a permanent member of the band. It was an addition that Zac Brown Band’s Matt Mangano says was needed, in more ways than one.

“A bunch of forty-something-year-old dudes is getting refreshed by adding a thirty-something-year-old woman who provides a different energy,” he said. “And, even deeper, for our daughters, it’s an awesome inspiration for them to see that their musical aspirations could end up with them on the kinds of stages we play.”

Hopkins recently released “Snow,” a duet with Debby Boone. The song is available to download or stream here.