moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey offers an uplifting progress report on his health in a clip from Podcrash, a new podcast series addressing all things moe. Premiering exclusively through Live For Live Music, Garvey discusses his road to recovery and what’s keeping him going.
Asked by bassist Rob Derhak, who overcame oropharyngeal cancer in 2017, “What’s putting a fire under your ass?” Garvey had this to say.
“The biggest one, the first one, was getting some speech going on,” Garvey recalled. “I just wanted to talk, you know? And the first thing was, when I woke up, I just wanted to see everyone that I’ve ever known. …I just wanted to see them and talk to them and I don’t know why, I was just like that’s what I wanted. You know, that was the big thing. And I couldn’t, it was great to see you guys, but I couldn’t say what I wanted to say so that was hard.”
Garvey suffered a stroke in November 2021, with the band clearing most of its remaining calendar for the guitarist to focus on his recovery. moe. did stage a two-night run at The Capitol Theatre in December, where an array of well-wishers dropped by to express their affinity for Chuck, who was at home on the mend but managed to make a memorable appearance in a pre-recorded clip cast onto the wall of the Port Chester, NY venue. Among the special guests were keyboardist Nate Wilson (Percy Hill) and guitarist Suke Cerulo (Schleigho), who will perform with moe. throughout the rest of 2022, including at Summer Camp Music Festival over Memorial Day weekend.
“Getting back on my feet was a big thing so I can get out of the chair,” Garvey said. “And then the next thing was getting my hand to work so I can play. …It’s funny, I have two dogs and I come over with my weird hand, and I go ‘pat, pat, pat’ on the dog and the dog is like ‘uh, I don’t really like this.'”
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The height of Chuck’s spirits is matched only by his determination as moe. heads into the 21st installment of its annual Summer Camp celebration at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, IL May 27th–29th. Garvey is eager to rejoin his bandmates and is striving every day to achieve that goal.
“Working on everything to get the fine motor skills is really big, because I wanna play again, I wanna play with the band,” Garvey said. “All the fun things we do with music, I wanna try that again.”
Listen to the latest health update from Chuck Garvey in this exclusive clip from the moe. Podcrash, set to premiere Thursday on the band’s website and wherever you listen to podcasts.
moe. Podcrash – Episode 1 Exclusive First Listen