Go Fund Me Campaign for Dick and Lana Dale

Guitar legend Dick Dale. Photo courtesy of Dick and Lana Dale.

[Update as of 7.18.19…the DD Go Fund Me Campaign is just ~$13K shy of its goal, thanks to your help thus far!] I encourage you all to visit the official Go Fund Me campaign for Dick and Lana Dale to help, if you can. The legendary Dick Dale was playing his guitar up through the last days of his 81st year on this Third Stone from the Sun this past March. He was a consummate showman who continued performing through a number of physical challenges and then gave a generous amount of time, grace and kindness toward his fans after every concert.

I’ve already verified with Lana that this is the proper page, and the costs will go toward helping cover Dick’s funeral expenses in addition to his last 6 weeks of medical bills.

Dick Dale gave me one of the most memorable interviews (and the longest) for My First Guitar: Tales of True Love and Lost Chords (Souvenir Press). He was a living treasure of guitar history, and aptly, as he liked to say, “The Last of the Mohicans.”

We kept in touch every so often since that interview. Of course, I had no idea that it was going to take nine years to see the book published. Imagine how joyful I was to finally be able to email him the news of the book’s imminent publication and learn, in that same instant, that Dick had great news of his own to share–he’d just remarried to the love of his life, Lana, in Hawaii.

Lana sent me this photo, and yes, you’re viewing it with the same fuzzy, squinty resolution that I did. She looks like a cross between the supermodel Claudia Schiffer and the actress Patricia Arquette, no?

Center of photo: Lana and Dick Dale. Photo courtesy of Lana Dale.

As a music journalist, I’ve come to know the families of many working musicians, as they often serve as the managerial home base, the inspiration, and source of good humor that fuels the music across endless stretches of highway and time zones. Lana has been a supportive dynamo for Dick in every way imaginable through these years. For a man who devoted himself to the guitar and gave so much musically with vitality and a larger-than-life spirit, I hope you will be able to honor his memory in some small way.