How Tony Bennett Lived and Sang for Years with Alzheimer's: 'Singing Is Everything to Him'

Bennett's representative confirmed to PEOPLE on Friday that the music legend died at the age of 96

Despite having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Tony Bennett kept the mindset of “Anything Goes.”

The music legend, who died at the age of 96 on Friday, spent the last few years of his life performing while battling the disease, which his family revealed he had in 2021.

Bennett’s wife Susan Benedetto explained in a profile published in AARP The Magazine that the “Rags to Riches” crooner was officially diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease — which is characterized by progressive memory loss and can often lead to dementia — in 2016.

While many people who suffer from the disease end up losing their ability to speak, understand and recognize their loved ones, Benedetto said Bennett was a special case. He had been capable of recognizing his friends and family and even able to remember the lyrics and sing out his songs.

"Singing is everything to him. Everything," Benedetto noted. "It has saved his life many times.”

Related: Tony Bennett, Legendary Pop and Jazz Singer, Dead at 96

The star continued to perform and tour as recently as 2019 and launched a concert series with his friend Lady Gaga in early and mid 2021 — a feat his neurologist, Gayatri Devi, said had been incredibly beneficial for the Grammy Award winner.

"It kept him on his toes and also stimulated his brain in a significant way," Devi explained in 2021.

She later explained to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes: "I mean that's the other thing about music that sets it apart, is that it is a part of the brain that's very emotional. Music is housed in different parts of the brain, including parts of the brain that deal with emotion, and therefore, it's easy to be moved by it when you hear it."

Devi admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic had been a” real blow from a cognitive perspective" for Bennett since he was unable to perform on stage and sing his songs. She said his memory prior to the pandemic “was so much better," so she had recommended to Bennett's family that he continue to rehearse twice a week. "The Good Life" singer's longtime pianist, Lee Musiker, would come over to their house to run through a 90-minute set with him so he could perform.

During a 60 Minutes broadcast back in 2021, Bennett performed a song with his pianist — recalling each word and note without sheet music or lyrics in front of him.

Related: Tony Bennett's Wife Susan Benedetto Says Star 'Doesn't Know' He Has Alzheimer's 

"Well that was really one of the great honors I've ever had," host Cooper, 56, said following the performance.

"Tony likes to say he's in the business of making people feel good, and he still is," Benedetto commented, to which Bennett confirmed, "That's it."

He also continued to make new music, collaborating with “Poker Face” songstress on their joint Cole Porter tribute album released on Oct. 1, 2021 called Love for Sale — which was nominated for six awards at last year’s 64th Grammy Awards.

"This album happened because it was Tony's idea and I made him a promise that we would make it and we did,” Lady Gaga said at the time, later performing the title song sans Bennett at the Grammys.

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When asked by Cooper if Bennett's final performance was "a sad story," Gaga gave her own reflection on the "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" crooner.

"It's not a sad story," she said. "It's emotional. It's hard to watch somebody change. I think what's been beautiful about this, and what's been challenging, is to see how it affects him in some ways, but to see how it doesn't affect his talent."

"I think he really pushed through something to give the world the gift of knowing that things can change and you can still be magnificent," she concluded.

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