Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Doug Settles plays with Juice at the Greystone Tavern on Sunday to raise money for Brent Clinevell, a singer in the Roanoke area who recently was diagnosed with throat cancer. Settles organized the benefit to help Clinevell cover medical expenses.

Musicians who performed at Brent Clinevell's benefit Sunday signed a guitar that will be raffled to help cover Clinevell's medical costs.

Brent Clinevell thought he only had a sore throat. But what felt like a knot in his throat continued to get worse. When he awoke one morning spitting up blood, Clinevell realized that his pain was serious. After a biopsy, his fears became real. Clinevell, the lead singer for the Kings band, has throat cancer. He also does not have health insurance, which is common among musicians because they often work on a freelance basis and must pay for costly insurance polices on their own, according to the Future of Music Coalition, a nonprofit organization.

Clinevell, 56, said his health insurance costs soared to $3,000 a month after he had his second heart surgery in 2000. "The rates went up so high I couldn't pay for it," said Clinevell, who also works as a booking agent for SRO Productions in Roanoke. On Sunday, bands from across the region joined in musical unison to help him.

Eleven bands, including the Kings, were scheduled to rock through 2 a.m. during a benefit concert at Greystone Tavern in Salem that was organized in Clinevell's honor.

Admission was $15, and donations were collected. About 800 people had come through the Greystone Tavern's doors as of 10 p.m.

Last month, the music community also came together to raise financial support for another local musician inflicted with cancer, Robbie Wells. Like Clinevell, Wells does not have health insurance.

There have been other recent efforts by local musicians to support one another. Earlier this year, supporters held concerts to raise funds to replace musical equipment lost in a warehouse in Southeast Roanoke fire in January. The rehearsal space housed gear for members of the Magic Twig Community, a collective of musicians.

Already, the medical bills are piling for Clinevell, who has begun radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

"The benefit will help me with some of those and day-to-day living expenses," he said.

The goal is to raise at least $7,500, said Doug Settles, a musician and a friend of Clinevell's, who organized the benefit.

Clinevell is regarded as a legend in the local rock music scene. Since the 1970s, the Salem native has performed in many of the region's bands, including Razzmatazz and Diamonds.

For 17 years, he has performed with Kings, a band that plays a mix of music genres -- from Top 40 to Motown tunes -- for weddings, corporate events and parties. The band has a temporary singer until Clinevell is able to perform regularly.

The cancer is not on his larynx, but his saliva glands are gone, leaving his mouth dry. He also has a feeding tube.

At the benefit concert Sunday, Clinevell mingled with supporters, getting hugs from many of them. The hardwood floors at Greystone Tavern vibrated as music blasted. Greystone donated its facility for the concert, and it's giving half of its bar sales to the cause.

"I'm just knocked out," Clinevell said about the support from the benefit. "It's very humbling."

The first music group, the Andy Hollander Band, began playing at 2 p.m., and the crowd built from there. Other bands in the lineup included Breeze Brothers, Leggz Diamond, the Original Royal Kings and Gasoline Alley.

Jennifer Sutton arrived to cheer on her husband, who plays for the Andy Hollander Band, and to support Clinevell. As a teenager, Sutton, now 47, said she remembers sneaking into the former Kings Inn in downtown Roanoke to hear Clinevell's band.

For seven years, she enlisted the Kings to play for a Christmas event for her employer, Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern.

She said Clinevell has a talent for reading a crowd's musical preferences.

"He knows exactly what they want to hear," Sutton said.

Settles said that Clinevell was one of the reasons that he joined a band. After hearing Clinevell sing, Settles, 16 at the time, decided that he wanted to be in a rock 'n' roll band.

Three years later, Settles joined Razzmatazz.

Clinevell was "the king of Roanoke rock 'n' roll," Settles said. "He was like Elvis in Roanoke to the local musicians."

Settles said that Clinevell's cancer treatments are beginning to take a toll on him.

"I wanted to inspire him," Settles said "I wanted him to know how much the people love him in this city."