Bobby Hurricane Spencer Needs A Little Help

This GoFundMe is sponsored by musician friends of Bobby's who are asking your help for him at this time: Chris Elliott, Paul Kenedy, Mark Flannery , Michael Gliona, David Dot Hale and Jeff Dale are asking that you read this and contribute what you can. 

When musicians in Los Angeles hear the line, “This is the story of The Hurricane…” they think of Bobby “Hurricane” Spencer in almost the same moment they think of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the boxer.  Bobby is a legend in Southern California blues and jazz circles and back in his hometown of Oakland where his star is on the Walk of Fame – the Music They Played on 7th Street. He has been giving of himself and his music for most of a lifetime, and now he needs our help. This is an appeal to the Los Angeles music community’s listeners and players, as well as anyone who believes great artists should be afforded some dignity and comfort in their times of great challenge.

Bobby has had a series of strokes and seizures that he survived in good mental condition, but the experience has left his body in a state that will require some professional care in the coming years. The projected cost of keeping Bobby as well as he can be is about $60,000 per year over and above medical expenses.   We seek a quarter of the first year’s expenses, humbly and with gratitude, as a way of helping Bobby get started on this new part of his journey. It looks like we will be able to put together the rest of it. Next year? As the old musician’s saying goes, we’ll play that bridge when we come to it.

Everyone involved in Bobby’s care works full time (that’s the nature of the blues), and we are shifting schedules trying to arrange the full-time presence he needs, but soon we’ll need to hire a caregiver to help with his transfers from various pieces of equipment and facility to facility and to be there when the rest of us cannot. This all began in 2019 and we have tried as hard as we could to shoulder everything within the family, but the time has come for us to give in and ask for some help.

 Bobby’s magnificent, regal saxophone sound has been put on pause – he has strong hopes and desires of completing a jazz album that he has started. His sometimes soulful, sometimes wry and comic vocal delivery is also slower to come, but worth waiting for. But not an ounce of his joy of living has departed. He gives and receives love with all the gentle ease he ever has, and is in good spirits in spite of his sudden setback. If you believe, like we do, that Bobby has earned this little set break, please give what you can. Thanks a million from Bobby and all of us who love him.