Today, giving gets personal...
I knew at some point this year I’d wind up donating to someone I knew because of a personal medical crisis. I just had hoped it wouldn’t be in the first week.
I guess I first encountered Billy Block when he was still in Los Angeles, playing drums for a country group called the Bum Steers. We’ve known each other for nearly 20 years now, and you won’t find a more energetic, optimistic, community-minded person in all of Nashville’s music industry.
For most of those years, maybe all of them, Billy has produced a weekly multi-act music show — sometimes called the Western Beat Roots Revival, currently called the Billy Block Show — that showcases musical acts just outside, or just ready to enter, the country mainstream. Thousands of acts have played those shows over the years, including Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Trisha Yearwood, Florida Georgia Line, Kacey Musgraves and the Avett Brothers. To name just a few.
A couple weeks ago, Block, 58, was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic melanoma after going to his doctor to get treated for bronchitis. He went public with the news Sunday.
According to a letter his wife, Jill, posted to the CaringBridge page set up for him, Billy's cancer already has spread to his lymph nodes, spleen and liver. He’ll be starting medicine infusions as part of a clinical trial on Jan. 29, and his Nashville oncologist has been consulting with doctors at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center.
This isn’t Billy’s first go-round with melanoma. Unfortunately, that previous bout left him incapable of getting disability insurance, and that’s something he sure could have used going forward. (That’s where the CaringBridge page is going to come in handy.)
According to Jill’s letter, Billy’s not yet in any pain. So the Billy Block Show is scheduled every Tuesday night in January, starting tonight at the Mercy Lounge.
“I trust that God and the abundant power in the Universe will conspire to provide our spiritual, emotional and financial needs,” Billy wrote in an email Monday. “Thankfully I will be able to continue to work, play music, produce shows and lead as close to a normal life as possible while focused on the path to wellness.” And then he wrote the kicker: “My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are also on the road to victory over cancer.”
Because he’d had his own run-in with cancer, Billy reached out to me immediately a couple years ago when news of my own diagnosis broke. Making a donation to his fund, and maybe bringing some extra attention to his situation, is just a small payback on my part. I certainly hope to get to do more.
Jan. 7: The Billy Block Family Fund
Update: As of Tuesday morning, Billy's Caring Bridge page seems to have been deactivated. I don't know whether or not this is a temporary thing. Should you want to donate to the Billy Block Family Fund, you can do that at any Wells Fargo branch office or by mailing checks (payable to Wells Fargo; attention Bradley Gallimore or Danielle Lares-Bouharoun) to Wells Fargo Private Bank, 3100 West End Ave., One American Center, Suite 550, Nashville, TN 37203.
Why I started this blog
