Etta James in Bad Shape

Famed singer Etta James has been hospitalized with a serious urinary tract infection in LA, her son Donto James reveals. He also said that his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a year ago.

The singer best known for her classic love song, “At Last” was thrust back into the public eye after the 2009 film Cadillac Records was released with mega star Beyonce portraying her.

“Right now she is very confused,” her son said. He called her “quite combative…fighting, biting – I’m talking way off the chart. I am going to end up losing my mother if it keeps going on like this.”

James says the Alzheimer's helped contribute to his mother’s controversial comments last year about Beyonce's take on her classic song "At Last", which Beyonce performed at President Obama's inaugural ball.

In a concert right after the ball, Etta James criticized the singer for singing her famous song, saying that Beyonce couldn’t sing it correctly and expressing wishes that she would stop singing the song as if it was hers.

Donto also said she was suffering from "drug-induced dementia" at the time, due to medications she was taking for a back injury.