You have seen his work if you’ve entered the 710 freeway from Seventh Street, driven by Washington Middle School on Pacific Avenue or Surreal Salon Suites in East Long Beach.
Now, he’s asking for the community’s help to fight a rare form of bone cancer he was diagnosed with last year.
Thursday evening, Kenny McBride, 38, will play guitar on stage for the first time with his band Plasma Pool at DiPiazza’s. Local bands Hamapple and One Square Mile will open the benefit concert.
All proceeds will go toward McBride’s expenses during his stem cell transplant, which could keep him off his feet for up to six months.
“I’m not going to die before we play a show,” McBride said he told his bandmates.
After experiencing unusual fatigue and excessive bleeding after a dental procedure last year, he went in for a series of tests.
A blood test revealed his platelet count was nearly four times the typical level. That combined with a bone biopsy led doctors to diagnose him with myelofibrosis – a rare bone marrow cancer typically found in people over age 65.
Despite battling what he described as constant flu symptoms and muscle fatigue, McBride continues to work as a muralist and record songs with the band.
“If I sit down for five minutes, it takes me 10 minutes to get going again,” McBride said.
A year ago, he weighed 240 pounds. Now, he’s down to about 155 pounds.
McBride’s mural at George Washington Middle School shows Lady Liberty breaking through the border wall to welcome a line of children.
It was his first major school mural and it came about by chance.
A man who purchased one of his paintings saw the grant application and asked McBride to sketch out the Lady Liberty concept. He did so in 15 minutes and sent it over to the man, who unbeknownst to McBride, submitted it to the grant application.
Now, McBride and his wife Anna – a fellow visual artist – have completed murals at a handful of schools, including South Park Elementary School and Loren Miller Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
McBride’s positive attitude persists despite the challenges of his diagnosis.
Plasma Pool’s single “Lonely Boy,” a cover of the Black Keys’ song by the same name, features the blue cloud mural McBride painted on his own Toyota Matrix last year.
“One thing I have learned about cancer is that you can’t control what it does inside of you and you can’t control the effect it has outside of you,” he said.
Late last year, his friend Matthew Barrie set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for the stem cell transplant McBride requires.
Thus far, it has raised just over $18,000 toward its $50,000 goal.
McBride remains on a waiting list for the treatment while his healthcare provider searches for a donor match.
While on the waiting list, he has taken matters into his own hands including seeking a second opinion from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and lobbying his doctor to get him onto trials for experimental drug treatments.
“If I can’t beat this, I at least want to help them figure out how to beat it,” McBride said.
Tickets for the I Saved Kenny: Benefit Concert! at DiPiazza’s Pizza, 5205 Pacific Coast Highway can be purchased here. A $10 donation at the door is also welcome. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.