Shaun hopper biography

VALDOSTA — Shaun Hopper’s fingers didn’t want to play guitar.

For a professional musician known for his fluent style of finger-picking and a musician who loved playing so much that he once practiced guitar in hotel bathrooms while his fellow bandmates slept or partied after shows, the growing tension in his right hand and fingers was frightening.

“It was one of the most terrifying things in my entire life,” said Hopper who is scheduled to play a show Friday evening at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.

“Here was something I loved and here was a possibility that I couldn’t do it any more.”

The diagnosis was dystonia, a neurological condition where muscles contract.

For Hopper, the diagnosis was part of a vicious circle.

He said he had dystonia because he practiced and played guitar too much too often.

He practiced so often because he loves playing guitar.

Dystonia threatened to end his playing career.

He’s played gui