Television Guitarist Richard Lloyd Diagnosed With Cancer

Richard Lloyd, the founding Television guitarist whose fluid, jagged playing helped define the sound of New York’s nascent punk scene, has been diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a serious form of bile duct cancer.

According to a GoFundMe fundraiser organized by Sean Seymour, Lloyd’s bandmate in the Richard Lloyd Group, the diagnosis came in March. Lloyd, 74, has tumors in his liver, including one dangerously close to a major blood vessel that doctors currently cannot safely operate on. He has since spent time in the ICU seven times, including two bouts with sepsis and complications involving his liver and kidneys.

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For Lloyd, the illness has also brought a painful financial reality: he is unable to tour, eliminating the primary source of income for a working musician. His wife, Sheila, is serving as his full-time caregiver and likewise cannot work, while unresolved royalty issues dating back roughly two years have compounded the pressure alongside medical and living expenses.

Lloyd was born in Pittsburgh but moved to Greenwich Village with his parents at age six. With aspirations to become a musician, he left New York and arrived in Los Angeles in 1971. Lloyd heard about how the New York Dolls had taken up residency at the Mercer Arts Center, and that some sort of emerging underground music scene was happening.

As an eventual founding member of Television alongside the late Tom Verlaine, Lloyd was at the center of the downtown New York music community that coalesced around CBGB in the 1970s. Television’s Marquee Moon would go on to become one of rock’s most influential albums, its interlocking guitars helping establish a vocabulary that extended well beyond punk.

“I am usually a pretty upbeat person and I am taking this in stride,” Lloyd says, “but it has become very difficult on our own and financially we are strapped.” Adds Seymour, “if Richard’s music has meant something to you, please consider donating. And if you aren’t able to donate, please share this fundraiser.

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