Michael Hurtt has been battling lymphoma for six months, and his friends and family have set up a fundraising page to help pay for his ongoing medical expenses.
Although he’s been living in Detroit since Hurricane Katrina, the Indiana-native made New Orleans his home for many decades preceding the storm.
While here, he co-founded Ponderosa Stomp, a roots music festival designed to celebrate the “unsung heroes” of rock and roll, and he served as the frontman for rockabilly/honky tonk outfit Michael Hurtt and His Haunted Hearts.
With his genre-defying, punk-ish band the Royal Pendletons, he appeared on OffBeat’s cover in August, 1995.
As a former OffBeat writer, he has also contributed many articles to the magazine.
He’s currently collaborating with Billy Miller on a history of Detroit’s Fortune Records, and he’s about to enter the second phase of his treatment, radiation therapy.
Hopefully, this will put the cancer into remission.
