Television guitarist and co-founder Richard Lloyd has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer, and a GoFundMe has been launched to assist him and his family in covering his medical expenses. According to the GoFundMe created by Lloyd’s bandmate and friend Sean Seymour, the musician was diagnosed with a rare and intense form of bile duct cancer called cholangiocarcinoma in March.
Seymour noted Lloyd, 74, has tumors in his liver and one near a major blood vessel which makes doctors unable to perform any operations at this time. Furthermore, the Television guitarist has been in the ICU seven times, including for two bouts of sepsis, plus for complications in his kidneys and liver. Lloyd’s wife, Sheila O’Keefe, has given up her job and acted has Lloyd’s full-time caregiver.
Due to his cancer, Lloyd cannot tour or play shows. “For a working musician, that’s devastating — not only because performing is what he loves, but because touring is his primary source of income,” Seymour wrote. “Like most working musicians, Richard is being overwhelmed by crushing medical expenses and the ongoing costs of simply getting through each month while he is unable to work.” Seymour also mentioned “unresolved royalty issues going back roughly two years” have created another stressor for Lloyd and O’Keefe.
Lloyd’s GoFundMe aims to raise $80,000 to cover his medical and monthly living expenses. As of Aug. 24, approximately $48,000 has been donated. “Richard has spent decades giving his music to other people. Now it’s our turn to give something back to him,” Seymour concluded. “I’ve been lucky enough to stand beside Richard on stage for the past four years. Right now, I’d like to stand beside him in a different way.”
Punk icon Patti Smith confirmed to Rolling Stone she donated $5,000 to the GoFundMe “in gratitude for his musical contribution in Television and beyond, that inspired us all.” The Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine and Violent Femmes’ bassist Brian Ritchie have reportedly also made donations, as did Susan Tweedy, the wife of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy.
Television’s 1977 debut record Marquee Moon is widely considered one of the best punk albums of all time. The band formed in New York City in 1973, and disbanded for the first time in 1978 after the release of their sophomore album. Television released one more album in the Nineties and played intermittent reunions over the following decades, but officially dissolved in 2023 following the death of frontman Tom Verlaine. Television bassist Fred Smith died this February, and Lloyd has worked as solo musician since then.
“I am usually a pretty upbeat person and I am taking this [cancer diagnosis] in stride, but it has become very difficult on our own and financially we are strapped,” Lloyd wrote in a statement on the GoFundMe. “That’s why I’m asking for your help. If you can see your way clear to make a donation please do that. Otherwise, please pass it around to your friends that might help and people that know me.”
