Here Today... Gone To Hell!

With his idol on his side, a guitarist with cancer plays on

By Billy Cox
Published Sunday, July 13, 2008


PALMETTO ? The ringtone explodes with Guns N' Roses' opening guitar riff on "Sweet Child O' Mine," and Heath Sammons snaps open the cell phone. "City morgue," he answers. "You kill 'em, we chill 'em."
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Dressed largely in black, his faded denim jeans torn at the knees, the lanky 20-year-old is a poster boy for garage-band culture. He calls himself "old school," with a thing for Metallica, Boston and Aerosmith. He amps up his Gibson Les Paul and cranks a few power chords to establish his bona fides.

The black bandanna and backward baseball cap cloak the hair-loss side effects of chemotherapy, but on this particularly upbeat day, you would never know Heath was struggling with inoperable cancer. Because after having completed a jam session in Los Angeles with a rock 'n' roll deity, Heath anticipates leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

"You rock," proclaims a signed photo. "Hope you had a blast. See you soon. Slash."

Slash, as in Velvet Revolver / Guns N' Roses / "Guitar Hero." Billowing frizz beneath the legendary top hat, the droopy cigarette, the opaque shades, mere rumors for eyes. "Appetite for Destruction." That guy.

It is hard for Heath to keep a straight face

when he talks about his June 4 meetup with his idol, which was engineered by his family. The kid from Palmetto does his best to play it cool.

"He's an awesome musician and a great guy." It's no use. Here it comes, a sign of weakness -- the smile. "And he's loyal to his friends."

Family makes things happen

Heath's mother, Karis Meier, likes to accent life's positives. But discussing his abbreviated career at Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto presents a challenge.

"Heath is very spontaneous, and Mom was at school quite a bit," volunteers Karis. "The principal was really good. He tried hard to work something out."

It was not all bad. Manatee School is where, at age 14, Heath took his first guitar lessons and learned he had an aptitude for music on his $100 Fender Squier. But boredom with structure soon followed, as did several expulsions.

At 15, his first band was Kashmir, which did Metallica covers. Then there was Kileva, whose name is an inside joke. Lately, when he feels up to it, he plays with older guys -- doing Eagles, Petty, Skynyrd covers -- calling themselves the Under Construction Band.

But the world collapsed in early 2006, when Heath took a skateboard spill in Tampa, which unleashed a nightmarish ordeal of pain. Doctors discovered a tumor in his sacrum, at the base of his spine, and diagnosed a rare bone cancer called osteosarcoma.

Debilitating bouts of radiation and chemotherapy at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa appeared to have wrung it out of his system by the spring of 2007.

But last September, three more spots showed up on Heath's lungs. Those were surgically removed, but the reprieve would prove temporary.

And somewhere amid the blur, around the fall of 2006, Heath's stepfather, Jim Meier, and his aunt, Melody Carpenter, got the same crazy idea.

Without knowing what the other was doing, in an effort to boost Heath's spirits, each contacted a fan-based Web site in hopes of reaching his favorite guitarist -- Saul Hudson, aka Slash. Because it couldn't hurt.

A kindred spirit

Talk about lucky to be alive -- Slash wrote the book on it, literally, in 2007.

In addition to tracing the superstar arc triggered by his run with Guns N'Roses, Slash's self-titled autobiography volunteers unsparing details of rock 'n' roll debauchery: heroin addiction, public intoxication, chicks for free, STDs.

On "Late Show with David Letterman," he told the world about knocking back half a gallon of vodka each day for 10 years, which left him with heart disease and a defibrillator.

"They told me I had six days to six weeks to live," Slash informed Letterman's studio audience last October. But he sobered up cold turkey, and in the June edition of Mojo magazine, he told readers he had been sober for two years.

He credited his two young children for providing the clarity that saved his life.

Maybe that brush with mortality accounts for his response to overtures from Heath's aunt and stepfather. It is difficult to know for sure, because Slash declines to discuss his generosity in the media.

But he replied to both Melody and Jim, and finally spoke with Heath over the phone at the Moffitt Center in 2006 as he was being prepped for treatment.

"I felt about dead when the phone rang," Heath recalls. "I couldn't believe it when I picked it up. I said, 'Mom, it's Slash -- get the nurse out of here.' He was real cool, he said, 'You sound like a strong kid, we're rootin' for you,' things like that. We talked for about 20 minutes."

Slash followed up with signed photos, jeans, T-shirts, hats. Last year, Heath received four box seat tickets and backstage passes for Velvet Revolver's October concert in Tampa.

"It's been sort of unbelievable," said Melody. "Everything I've asked Slash to do for Heath, every single thing, he's done. He's wonderful."

Playing through the pain

Cancer raged back into Heath's collapsing lung early this year, then bloomed as a tumor against his vena cava.

Moffitt oncologists counterattacked with chemotherapy. The returns came back in mid-May: inoperable.

Today, Heath's family is determined to rebuild his immune system through vitamins and diet.

And maybe with a little help from his friends. Following a heads-up from Heath's family, Slash made an offer no star-struck young guitarist could refuse: Come on out to L.A. one afternoon and jam.

"I couldn't believe we were actually going to do it," Heath says.

Accompanied by a small entourage from Palmetto, including 18-year-old buddy Tommy Busch, Heath packed his Les Paul and flew west.

Heath's entourage hooked up with the Guitar Hero on June 4 at a mansion Slash sold to actor Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton agreed to let them use Slash's old recording studio in the basement, called The Cave.

Heath introduced Slash to a couple of original compositions, which they recorded. They spent the entire afternoon, four hours, trading licks and stories.

"I think I play a lot like him," Heath recalls. "Not on purpose, that's just how it went, we're so much alike. Our riffs were pretty close."

Afterward, Slash offered a few words of encouragement for a blog that Heath's stepfather, Jim, maintains at http://heathsupdate.blogspot.com/

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080713/NEWS/807130343/-1/newssitemap

Funky, that is the most amazing heart warming Slash story I have ever read.  I have never heard about this.  Slash didn't advertise this.  He just did it.  And he didn't have to.  Slash proves behind all the rock star bravado, and excess, he is a great genuine person that is very caring.  He made this kid so happy and he spent sooo much time with him.  How cool was it too for Billy Bob to let Slash use his old studio.  Seems like a big effort.  I think its great when famous people do great things for the RIGHT reasons. 

Best of luck to Heath and way to go Slash for being a friend to a person in need. 

That's real cool of Slash.

That's an awesome story!  

I wish the best for Heath.  

awesome thing to do

how sweet indeed.  :)

I noticed the people that call Slash a "brand" or "selling out" or a "celebrity whore" or "a greedy person only about himself" aren't giving Slash his due here when he does something from the heart.  Interesting.

are you surprised?  ;)

No, but it would be nice to hear one of his haters say, "i might not be the biggest Slash fan around, but that was cool as hell what he did for a person in need."

hey! i kinda said that  :rant:

 ;) :hihi:

Cheap John, you are always fair, I am talk about the people with an agenda against Slash that say everything he does is motivated by money. No big deal. 

I don't think everything he does is motivated by money. I just think all the exceedingly lame, shoddy ass things he does are motivated by money.

You know, writing an inaccurate book, playing with the Best Buy band, sueing a realtor for a house he bought and never looked at, that kind of thing.

This on the other hand, was cool.

 : ok:  Adz, nice post!

What a strange post-the guy spends 20 minutes on the phone with a kid with cancer and your talking about a lawsuit with a realtor? Unreal

Adz finally admitted, even after bashing the guy first, that it was a good thing he did.  So we can't bitch because he did finally aknowledge it...  But I agree, what does that have to do with what he did here?  Nothing.

Then why did YOU bring it up?  AdZ was only commenting on what you posted first.  ::)

You are correct, I said his post was good though from the get go.  You know what I mean.  Props to Adz for saying the deed was good, eventhough he did slip the real estate agent ting in there.   : ok:  :rofl:

i had cancer too fuck i live in argentina.

is was very cool to read what that guy said. some memories of myself too went back.

i wish i could play with slash some day too : ok: : ok:

Yes. He really is a good guy.  8)

MyFox Tampa Bay video on the story:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=25887E7F2EF0788B7EF9DA14AD08E759?contentId=7154603&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1


Thanks to Ezikiel

Best wishes to Heath!  Seems like a great kid!

Watching the video made me want to cry.   :'(

Hi man, i'm from Argentina too.

What kind of fuckin' cancer did you have ?

are you healthy 100% now ? In that case,  :beer: :beer: :beer:

Saludos !

It simple shows waht kind of a person Slash is-simple

that was classy.

best wishes to the kid even though his situation seems really bad :(

Aspiring musician with cancer loses struggle at age 20

Published: Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.

PALMETTO - Playing guitar in a jam session this past summer with his hero, former Guns N? Roses lead guitarist Slash, was a dream come true for 20-year-old Heath Sammons of Palmetto.

The aspiring musician and songwriter also hoped that another one of his dreams would come true: beating a rare form of bone cancer.

?He was such a fighter,? Sammons? mother, Karis Meier, said of her son?s nearly three-year battle with osteosarcoma. ?He just believed that he was going to make it.?

Sammons lost his struggle in the early morning hours of Dec. 24.

Meier said the private jam session with Slash last June in Los Angeles not only helped lift her son?s spirits as he coped with rounds of chemotherapy and surgery, but evolved into a friendship with the 43-year-old rock star, who now performs with Velvet Revolver and is featured in the ?Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock? video game.

?It helped him cope because Slash was always just a phone call away,? Meier said. ?Slash saw Heath not only as a young man who had an illness, but as a friend. They grew close.?

So close, in fact, that Slash, aka Saul Hudson, hopped on a plane to pay Sammons a visit at his Manatee County home in September after Sammons? latest surgery.

?It was just amazing the compassion that Slash had for Heath and the friendship between them,? Meier said. ?Heath believed he would be a rock star some day, and now he?s a rock star for Jesus.?

Sammons did not discover his musical aptitude until he took guitar lessons at 14 while attending the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto.

He joined his first band, Kashmir, at 15. Other local bands, including Kileva and The Under Construction Band, soon followed. He played music by Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Eagles and Tom Petty, and also began writing his own songs.

After learning of his cancer diagnosis at 18, Sammons lent his talent to help raise money for cancer research. He played at all five of the American Cancer Society?s Relay for Life charity events in Manatee County in 2006.

?He was a natural performer,? said his stepfather, Jim Meier. ?He was at home on the stage with people watching him.?

Sammons began performing professionally at local venues this past year.

Music helped him temporarily escape from everyday matters, including his illness.

?When I?m playing, it frees my spirit,? he told the Herald-Tribune in July.

During his Los Angeles visit, Sammons shared with Slash some of his original music, which they recorded in a private studio.

?I think I play a lot like him; not on purpose, that?s just how it went,? Sammons later remarked.

Slash later offered some encouraging words on a Web site Sammons? stepfather created for the young musician.

?Having spent a few hours jamming with him & his friend Tommy, I got to know Heath a little better. Not only is he an awesome kid, he?s a good songwriter as well!? Slash posted on www.heathsupdate.blogspot.com.

?He definitely can play the guitar, that much I have witnessed, & pretty damn well too! Having Heath & his family out in LA was a gas,? Slash added.

Jim Meier said his stepson had a promising musical career.

Several of Sammons? performances can be viewed on YouTube. Recollections and condolences can be posted at caringbridge.org/visit/heathsammons.

Some of Sammons? bandmates will pay tribute to him with a concert today at the Manatee County Fairgrounds from 2 to 6 p.m. A celebration of his life that includes a video tribute is planned for 11 a.m. today at First Baptist Church in Palmetto.

In addition to his mother and stepfather, Sammons is survived by his father and stepmother, Gary and Peggy Sammons of Bradenton; a brother, Colt, and a sister, Karissa, both of Palmetto; stepsisters Morgan Mitchell and Aubrey Lioce of Bradenton; and several extended family members.

Memorial contributions may be made to The Joy FM 88.1, 6469 Parkland Drive, Sarasota, FL 34243.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090101/ARTICLE/901010351/2055/NEWS?Title=Aspiring_musician_with_cancer_loses_struggle_at_age_20

How sad.  Reading that article makes you want to cry.  Thoughts and prayers have been sent to his family.

That is very sad.  May he rest in peace. 

R.I.P Heath :'(

Oh man, when I saw this thread back up at the top I knew it was going to be bad news. That's really sad, only 20, and brimming with talent, too. Fuck cancer.

Rest in Peace, Heath.

Rest in Peace Heath...He obviously touched many lives and had many people to support him.  That support included Slash.