Chuck Nelson Death, Obituary – Goodbye, old pals. It has come to my attention that my former drummer, Chuck Nelson, has died away, and the news has taken me by surprise. How likely was it that I would respond to an advertisement on Craigslist and wind up meeting two Chucks who would influence my musical endeavors? I didn’t know anything much about their everyday lives, other than the fact that we played music together occasionally. Because we all resided in such different parts of the Bay Area, when we needed to rehearse, we would convene at a questionable studio in Oakland.
The Chucks were a band that had been performing together in the Bay Area since the 1980s and had a lot of musical skill. Such absurd characters with an incredible amount of backstory. Drummer Chuck and I would remain for hours at a time and continue playing music while telling jokes and telling stories. After that, he would have me go to the front desk and try to sweet talk our way out of having to pay for the full amount of additional time that we had been staying there. It was always successful in some way. We tried out a huge number of guitarists and had to deal with a lot of strange circumstances, but we were never able to play Bass.
The state of Chuck’s health continued to deteriorate, and in the end, he was unable to perform. However, he continued to text me with words of encouragement and guidance. We were all lifelong companions and considered each other family. In the year 2020, we were without Bass Chuck. Drummer Chuck made it through the ordeal and came to visit me at the hospital so that we could bid our buddy goodnight. On my phone, I played each of the songs that we had been practicing to in the past. Once again, there were only the three of us. I still find it hard to accept that there is just one of me remaining. Without them, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to keep all of our stories in my head.
Music possesses a great deal of power and contributes significantly to the betterment of the world. Even though it makes me sad, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have known both Chucks and to have spent so many hours with them playing music and laughing together. I adore both of you and think about both of you often.