Steven Youth Marvelli Recovery Fund

From Kevin Seconds, 7Seconds:

This is an extremely difficult thing for me to do but it's important enough to me to at least try. If I could visualize any other possible option(s), I’d try them. Right now, and because time is of the absolute essence, I’m going about it in this way and asking for your help.

My little brother Steve (most of you know him as Steve Youth, bassist for 7Seconds) is having quite possibly the worst time of his life at the moment. 

He’s been struggling with a couple of personal and medical issues for awhile now but over the past couple of weeks or so, it has reached a sad and terrible point and in all honesty, I don’t really know what else I can do to help.

First of all and up until recently, Steve had been raising his 2 sons (Jordan and Simon) all on his own while eke-ing out a living with 7Seconds and with a couple of full-time low wage jobs he’s been able to pick up in between tours. Simon is now living with his mother but Jordan is still at home with his dad and preparing to start college.

 

My little brother certainly has his quirks and flaws (we all do) but when it comes to being a father, he’s always been there for his boys and has done an amazing job at raising them into 2 very cool kids. No matter what he has to do, he has always made sure that they were his priority.

 

Unfortunately, over the last couple of weeks, he’s showing signs of severe depression and has expressed to me and a few loved ones on a number of occasions that he has given up hope and doesn’t feel like he can overcome any more obstacles.
 At the moment, Steve is struggling with a couple of major things in his personal life. 

First of all, he has a good size sore on the inside of his mouth that has lingered for several months now. His doctor has looked at it and has described it as some sort of “soft tumor”. On Wednesday, November 11th, Steve has an appointment with his doc to have a biopsy done on the sore. At that time, we will know whether it is benign or not and what actions to next take. The doctor seems to feel that surgery, in all likelihood, will be necessary.

 

Unfortunately, Steve does not have health care coverage right now. He had Medicare coverage but when he accepted a recent in between tour job, he was deemed ineligible and lost it. As many of you know, many of us musician and artist-types have struggled to gain any sort of effective health care coverage due to the erratic nature of our employment/unemployment.  

Without any sort of health care coverage, Steve cannot afford the costs of serious medical treatment, medication and whatever surgery costs he would incur in dealing with the soft tumor in his mouth. 

Let me make something perfectly clear here. My brother Steve is a worker bee. Unlike me, he has always been able to suck it up and take jobs, good ones or otherwise, and accept whatever wages offered to make ends meet, whenever necessary. I’ve seen this kid go from working great paying job (with full benefits and retirement options) to busting ass as a minimum wage-making keno person in a Reno casino. He’s not too proud to take a job if/when 7Seconds isn’t active, not if it means keeping a roof over his sons’ heads, clothes on their backs and food in their stomachs. 

Unfortunately, because of his love and obligation to being a member of 7Seconds and with all the touring we've done these past couple of years, it’a been tough for him to hold down a regular job in between gigs and tours and this has led to much financial instability.

The second major health issue my brother Steve is facing, and this one seems just as big and insurmountable to him, is his alcoholism. He has recently admitted to me, Troy and Bobby that he has had an extremely serious alcohol problem for quite awhile now and that he now feels that it’s out of his control to stop. He has tried quitting on his own with prescribed anti-alcohol meds but so far, nothing has worked. 

In my experience, I’ve never seen any of my alcoholic friends or family members kick the alcohol habit/disease/addiction/whatever on their own. They have needed advice from experienced people, support, nurturing, etc. etc. I think Steve has known this himself deep down but was either too weak, proud or maybe just too stubborn to reach out for help.

 He now knows that he cannot beat this disease on his own and he is extremely frightened about losing his life over it. He told me this within the last couple of days and it has been on my mind non-stop. There’s nothing worse than a loved one telling you that they fear that they are dying. If Steve is telling me that he's scared about his alcohol problem and wants to get into a recovery/rehab program, i know that it’s worse than even he believes it is and that it is time for him to take serious action to try and recover. 

Steve’s drinking has never gotten in the way if his immense talent as a bassist or performer. Those of you who have seen 7Seconds play recently, can attest to this but I won't lie or bullshit you, behind the scenes, things have gotten dark, sketchy and a little scary. I won't go into details because I do not wish to share private things relating to my family, friends and bandmates but it hasn't been pretty or easy. 


I love my little brother. He is a highly intelligent, thoughtful, funny, talented man with an enormous heart and I fear that he will just succumb to his many problems and just disappear and the thought of that nearly cripples me. We both overcame tremendous obstacles together as poverty-stricken kids and music - and most notably - punk rock - saved our young lives and gave us the strength and courage to try and turn a negative into a positive. In a nutshell, this and mostly this, is what 7Seconds has always been about.

In closing, i'll just be blunt… 7Seconds hasn’t made any of us rich. We’ve made a pretty nice living playing the music that we love for the people that we love playing it for but on a financial level, I cannot think of a time when it wasn’t a struggle. 

Ultimately, we pay our rent and/or mortgages, take care of our basic needs and keep the cell phone bills paid so that we can keep the machine running and rolling along but that’s about it. After 35 years, we all still don’t quite make enough money to cover the costs of things that most of don't expect to face - poor health, addiction, mental issues, etc. etc., let alone have a nest egg for those "rainy days" that sometimes come along in our lives. That's just our reality and, right or wrong, it’s what we live with. 

The goal is to get Steve checked into a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Orange County on Dec. 1st.  He has contacted this particular facility on his own and has spoken with people there who tell him they will admit him. He will have to be in treatment for 90 day. If he leaves early, he’s on his own and will have to find a way back home to Reno himself. He knows this and has expressed his seriousness on rolling through with his attempt to get clean and sober and healthy. 

This will be the first time he has made a SERIOUS move to try and kick his alcohol problem with real help and support and not just attempt it on his own. It is a HUGE step and my family and I are very encouraged and proud of him for wanting to take this first step in what will surely be, a long road to recovery and getting well.

I spoke with Steve and his oldest son Jordan and told them that I thought this GoFundMe campaign might be our only option for raising some funds to A.) get him the treatment he needs for his alcoholism and B.) see to it that he can afford quality medical attention and have this soft tumor mouth problem treated and taken care of.

 Steve has read what I have written here and has given me his approval to share it with you, despite how personal it is. He knows that pride and stubbornness will not help him in any way and he is bound and determined to kick this alcohol problem, get healthy again and start a new chapter of his life and he wants to do this openly, without worries about judgement or criticism. I applaud him for this. 

Jordan will be managing this campaign and working closely with me to try and make out fund goal. 

We are asking for financial help on my little brother and his family’s behalf because he won’t or can’t ask himself and I understand why. 

We don’t seek a free handout but instead, would like to offer those who contribute funds towards helping get my little brother Steve Youth the help that he needs, a little something fun in return. 

Over the past 10 years or so, I have been quietly working on salvaging some of the earliest music of 7Seconds. I’m referring to the previously unreleased (commercially, at least) songs from our first 2 cassette releases, from 1980 and 1981 - Socially Fucked Up and 3 Chord Politics. Some of the songs have been cleaned-up.  Some have been re-done. Our aim has always been to release the material for some sort of anniversary type thing but we think that this is bigger and more important that a celebration of our band history. 

If you can only donate $1, you will have our eternal thanks and gratitude. 

For anyone who donates $5 you will receive an 5 songs from these longtime-planned sessions. 

BUT PLEASE DONATE MORE IF YOU CAN  :)

These are DIGITAL versions (mp3s) of the songs, delivered from me directly to the e-mail account of your choice. You will not receive a physical copy  (CD, vinyl or cassette) of these songs. 

Obviously, we understand if you’re not in a position to contribute anything to this fund. Not everyone reading this can but if you are in a position to do so, please do. 

Every dollar helps and will be used to help Steve get the medical and recovery treatment he needs and is very humbly asking for. 

Thank you so very much for reading this mini-novel and for your donation consideration. It means everything to me, Steve, our families, his kids, our bandmates and friends and fans worldwide to see to it that Steve gets back to being healthy and happy again. 

Much love & thanks,

Kevin Seconds, Jordan Marvelli and the Marvelli/7Seconds family