Help Randy Survive and Processing Grief & Pain

After a string of terrible luck and great loss, our brother and good friend Randy Lancelot is in a jam and really needs your help.

The short version:

Randy has been unemployed with no prospects for club/sound work in the near future

• He has severe foot pain, making it difficult to work even if he had offers (8-12 hours constantly on his feet per sound gig)

• He lost his fiancé Christy, who died suddenly in June 2021

• He adopted Christy’s elderly dog, Charlie, who needs veterinary care

• There is an urgent legal matter that needs resolution by March 2022

Funds will support paying for medical care, counseling, legal representation, travel to DC for legal issue, vet care for Charlie, living expenses etc.

• Randy has supported so many others, including strangers, on GFM or by sending some money whenever he was able, even when he had little extra to give.

• If you want more details, feel free to contact me, his sister Molly Lancelot.

This is truly urgent and we need to get him some financial support before March to make sure he can continue to move forward in healing!

The long version:

You may know Randy from Oak Park, the punk scene (especially in Chicago area in the 1990s), or the world of record collecting. You may also know him from one of the many clubs where he has worked as a live sound engineer, including The Fireside Bowl in Chicago and Red Palace, DC9 and The Rock’n’Roll Hotel in Washington, DC. Whether on stage or in the audience, if you’ve been at a club while he was at the soundboard, you have experienced his devotion to his craft—he works to make every concert the best it can be.

Anyone who has met Randy knows that he is a charismatic curmudgeon with a great sense of humor and a deep love of music. But there is a side to Randy that not everyone knows about: he is always there for people who need help. He was there for his elderly neighbor Larry, helping to take care of him while he fought cancer and being by his bedside so he did not die alone. Randy was there for the love of his life, Christy, when she became severely ill in the first year of their relationship. He took her to doctors, made sure she had groceries, and helped her pay bills when she was too sick to work. Over the years, he has frequently contributed to personal appeals like this for individuals and animals. These are just a few examples from a lifetime of helping people in need.

Now Randy needs us to help him. He has had a brutal string of bad luck and loss since 2018.

Due to flooding in his apartment and the loss of work from caring for Christy and the collapse of The Rock’n’Roll Hotel, Randy became homeless in 2018. This led him to relocate to Chicago in the summer of 2019, where a friend offered him a room to stay in and where he had better work prospects. He was steadily getting back to full time work when the pandemic hit and his work evaporated. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance kept him afloat and he shared his benefits with friends and family who were also struggling. That program ended at the start of September and the pandemic continues to keep most stages quiet, so Randy has no income.

Through this time, Randy and Christy’s love grew and she became his fiancé. Even as he has struggled, he shared everything he had with her and continued to help her manage her auto-immune disease and mental health challenges. She depended on a web of social services, which forced her to stay in DC until Randy secured housing and income in Chicago.

In June of 2021, Christy died suddenly and tragically. Randy rushed back to DC to deal with the aftermath of her death and to fulfill his promise to adopt her elderly dog, Charlie. Words cannot convey Randy’s grief right now.

On top of this emotional pain, he is in a lot of physical pain. Chronic pain runs in Randy’s family and he has suffered from it since his 20’s. Thanks to Obamacare he now has medical insurance for the first time in his adult life, but it is bare bones. He was recently diagnosed with traumatic plantar fasciitis, likely due to years of standing on a small platform and hauling music gear. This means that every step he takes causes stabbing pain—treating this is going to require specialized care and orthopedics, which may not be covered by his health insurance.

In addition to this, Randy is facing an unfair criminal charge. Like a lot of people with chronic pain, he got snared by opiates. His first spell of addiction was in the late 1990s, but he kicked his habit and stayed clean for almost 20 years. In 2018, when he became homeless and medical snafus left him without pain medication, he started using again. After saving the life of a friend who overdosed, Randy immediately went into rehab and has been clean since the spring of 2019.

Unfortunately, the police come when you call 911 to get an ambulance for someone who has overdosed. Because Randy did the right thing and stayed with his friend until the ambulance came, he was arrested for possession. Randy got an unusually severe charge, when the charges should have been dropped due to safe harbor rules, which protect people who save a life in these circumstances.

Randy is scheduled to go to trial in March and it could cost him much more than money. It looks like this problem can be resolved fairly, but only if he can hire a lawyer.

The past four years of caretaking, homelessness, unemployment, and loss have left Randy completely tapped out. While he was living in his car, he had to sell his musical instruments, PA gear, and beloved and legendary collection of vinyl records and memorabilia. His family and a small group of friends have been helping him as much we can, but his urgent legal and medical needs are too great for us alone.

Randy needs your help. Donations will go first towards Randy’s legal expenses and to help offset travel expenses if he has to go to DC for the adjudication. Donations beyond that will go towards his medical costs and getting his dog Charlie veterinary care. Once those critical needs are met, donations will go towards helping Randy stay afloat while he rebuilds his life, which is most likely going to mean training for a new career. We are hoping to raise $20,000, which is equivalent to 6 months of his income in DC.

While he is emotionally and financially drained right now, Randy is a fighter. We know that he can rebuild his life if his legal problem is resolved fairly and he gets the medical care he needs to get back on his feet, both literally and figuratively.

Please join us in helping Randy at this critical turning point in his life. Also, please share this Go Fund Me campaign through social media and with people you know who know Randy. He truly needs all the help we can muster.

Our sincere thanks,

Molly Lancelot, Joel Elvery, Nikki Tozzi and Pete Marchionna