Phoenix blues guitarist Carvin Jones reveals cancer diagnosis

If you've spent any time around the Valley music scene during the past three decades, chances are pretty good you've heard the name Carvin Jones.

On March 30, Jones headlined a gig at Celebrity Theatre. Eight days later, he announced on Facebook, and then his website, that he has been diagnosed with cancer. He said he went against doctor's orders and family members' advice to postpone the Celebrity Theatre show, but could no longer continue performing.

"More testing is still needed to know how far it's gone and how we're going to attack it, but it's made me pretty weak and unable to move around like normal," Jones wrote. "I have realized I'll need to take (the doctor's) advice so I'll be taking a break from touring and performing per doctors' orders in order to beat this and get back to myself."

The post included a link to a GoFundMe page that quickly raised more than $35,000 for his treatments and an announcement of a benefit show on the afternoon of April 24 at Bone Haus Brewing in Fountain Hills.

A young cat out of Phoenix

Also known as the “King of Strings,” Jones was, according to his website, named one of the 50 greatest blues guitarists of all time by Guitarist Magazine in 2001. He didn’t get the title without playing. A lot. He plays about 330 shows per year, and over the last three and a half decades, Jones has toured 37 countries on three continents. He’s even built up a following in Europe and South America.

Born in Lufkin, Texas, Jones became entranced by the blues as a small boy listening to his grandfather's B.B. King records. When he was 11, his grandmother bought him his first guitar — something that helped him keep from getting into trouble on the streets. After high school, Jones played gigs around Texas.

To the benefit of Valley music fans, he moved to Arizona in 1989, staying with his aunt and uncle at their home in South Phoenix. Somewhere along the line, Jones says on his website that Eric Clapton caught wind of him and said, "Carvin Jones is a young cat out of Phoenix who I think is the next up-and-coming blues player."

He's also a genuine man about town. In 2020, Jones helped deliver groceries to seniors after hearing that people were stealing from elders under the pretext of grocery shopping for them. As a competitive basketball player, Jones says on his website he sponsors a city league basketball team, coaching and teaching kids the game.

The cancer diagnosis stumped him. He refrains from drinking, smoking and drugs — his GoFundme page says he doesn't partake in so much as Tylenol. Like so many working artists, he says, he has no health insurance.

"This has been a huge blow emotionally, physically and financially since I can't go out and perform," he wrote on Facebook.