Gary Sinise on the Legacy of His Son Mac and His Music

"Mac was an incredible guy. … He was very disabled by this awful, rare cancer that took his life, called chordoma. And he fought it for about five and a half, six years. He probably had it for many, many more years than that, but it's a very slow growing tumor that starts in the spine.

…You can take it out and it can be cured if you get it all—if there are no cells that escape. And there's only maybe 300 people per year in the US that are diagnosed with this particular cancer. So 70% of the time they go in, they take it off the spine, and they get it all. 30% of the time it comes back. And that's what happened to Mac.

…During this period of time when he was fighting cancer, the cancer was so difficult to deal with that he just didn't think about music that much—until 2023. And he said to me that there was a piece of music he had been thinking about that he wrote in college but never finished. And he wanted to try to finish it.

And so he teamed up with two of my band members to help him work on it. And then out of the blue, a buddy of his from college, a composer pal, contacted him and came to see him, and they started talking about music … They went to work on it together in June of 2023, and by July 17, they were in the studio recording this beautiful, amazing piece called 'Arctic Circles' that led to an entire album's worth of music that he finished by the end of the year.

And he designed the album cover. The album is called Resurrection & Revival.

He wanted to make some vinyls to give to people, vinyl records. And he Dad, if we ever sell any, the money could go to the foundation.

He never saw the record. He never got to hold it, because it went to press the week that he died.

But he finished it, and he got to hear it all.

…I had ordered 500 and within a day, we had 1000 orders for the record. It was incredible, the outpouring of love and support and people acknowledging that they were saddened by what they had read on the Gary Sinise Foundation website.

…After he died, I found all this other music that he wrote in his Dropbox file that I'd never heard. And so I went to work, called Oliver up and said, we're going to do another record. And I produced, funded Part Two, and Oliver produced and arranged and helped me get it all organized. And Part Two is out there as well.

Now the vinyls have sold almost 7000 copies between the two of them, and it continues to sell. And the music is beautiful.

And the proceeds, as Mac wanted, they're helping our mission here at the Gary Sinise Foundation."

Gary Sinise’s son Mac passed away in 2024 after a five-year battle with cancer. But his legacy lives on.

🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/S0524GarySinise