With the Help of Sweet Relief, 60's music icon Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers has overcome cancer, homelessness and is recording new music that is garnering national interest. Features spots of Mr. Chambers on CNN, NBC, YouTube and internet media news site, Reddit spurs huge support.
Lester Chambers is now 72 years old. He has been performing professionally for 60 years. The highlight of his career was from 1965 to the early 70's when he was a member of The Chambers Brothers. The band charted hit records, performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and played stages around the world in front of thousands of fans.
In 2010, after surviving cancer on three separate occasions, Lester Chambers found himself homeless. Dwindling royalties and illness had caught up with the career musician. To make matters worse, he was losing his sight due to cataracts.
The first rays of hope came in the form of concerned family, a national musician's charity and a benevolent artist and friend. Rob Max, Executive Director of Sweet Relief Musicians Fund was contacted by a member of the Chambers family and passed along a number where Mr. Chambers could be contacted.
"Our first goal when speaking to Lester was to determine his medical urgency" said Max. "Besides his deteriorating vision, Lester was dealing with numerous medical issues that medicare was not covering adequately. In addition, he was sleeping on an air mattress in a house under construction with no roof."
Lester Chambers also shared with Sweet Relief a list of music friends he had acquired over the years. That list contained one particular name that became a life saving angel, Yoko Ono Lennon. "I had a wonderful friendship with John & Yoko many years ago, they were such sweet and wonderful people" said Chambers. "I hoped that some of the names I shared with Mr. Max might let music fans know about my situation. I never dreamed so much generosity would come from one person." Donations from Yoko Ono to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund exceeded $20,000 and were used to pay for medical treatment, prescriptions and housing for Mr. Chambers.
Fast forward to summer 2012. A second angel enter the life of Lester Chambers. Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder of Reddit, had seen recent news of Lester Chambers' struggles and ongoing challenges to identify and receive recording royalties dating back decades. Ohanian and his charitable endeavor, BreadPig devised a project on Kickstarter that would allow Lester to record new music and raise the funds to do so. The Lester Chambers Kickstarter project, Time Has Come, was budgeted at $39,000. To date over $60,000 has been pledged.
Lester Chambers name is now, once again, part of the music and social media consciousness, thanks to television and internet coverage by major media powerhouses like CNN and NBC. Offers for live music events, speaking engagements, and music cameos with some current major artists have inundated Mr. Chambers in the past 30 days. "This is a dream come true again" said Chambers. "If I can make my music, pay my way and help some others who may find themselves where I was just two years ago, then life is just perfect"
Today marks the last day that individuals may participate in Lester's Kickstarter project. Interested music fans can access the project here
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