The Wyatt Edmondson Story

As far back as he could remember, Wyatt Edmondson was a musician looking to inspire others through his own music, but at the age of 15 he was diagnosed with a disease that would change the path of his life forever.

“I have a condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa. It’s a retinal degenerative disease, and it’s something that runs in my family. Basically, it’s a form of progressive blindness, so you start out losing some vision at night and then you experience tunnel vision.”

Experiencing something like that could be life changing in the negative sense, but for Edmondson, he didn’t let anything stop him from his goals.

“I was 15 when first being told that this was something that I had. At first, you can probably guess what my reaction was. It was uncertain and a little scared, just not really sure what to think of it.”

For someone who taps into his emotions for music, Edmondson turned his situation into personal inspiration.

“I look at artist like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles and just plenty of people who just suffered with vision issues that has been successful in the music industry. There’s a commonality. people are perceived as having a disability, but really it’s a re-ability.”

The strength from within led Edmondson to continue a pursuit for musical excellence that still carries strong to this day.

“It’s something that I’ve learned to live with and it’s actually inspired a lot of what i do musically. It’s just sort of set in stone that music is my purpose here and it’s just something I really enjoy to do.”

For Edmondson, his motivation comes not only from his condition, but from someone who’s very close.

“My dad was a musician in college and high school. He played in a lot of bands and was a great guitar player. Ever since I was very young, he instilled in me just the value of what it means to perform music.”

Charles Edmondson just wanted to give his son the encouragement to succeed, and that’s exactly what he did. “I encouraged him a little bit, but he just thought there’s nothing he couldn’t do, and I told him, “All you have to do son is just get over the hump. Once you get over the hump, you got it.” One day I went to his room and he was playing. I looked at him and said, “You’re over the hump, son.”

The thought of blindness for most people could be a huge roadblock, but Wyatt says it’s all about your approach to life that matters the most.

“There’s a whole world inside of you and there’s a whole different potentials that you can access if you just let yourself do it. Everyone has a skill that’s unique to them and only they posses. I feel that way in my writing and in my performance, and I know whether it’s sports, art or whatever you want to do you can do it. You can fulfill it to your absolute fullest potential.”

You can find Wyatt Edmonson’s two albums: Higher Ground and Lovers Lake on iTunes, Amazon, Sound Cloud and on every other major music outlet.
Also, you can follow his journey through social media by following Wyatt Edmondson on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.