Former San Antonio musician Larry Patton is having a rough time of it with fourth stage metastatic melanoma, a deadly form of cancer which is in his stomach, pancreas, lymph nodes, liver and pelvic area.

Patton will be recalled by San Antonio music fans for his 1970s work with Claude Morgan and the Buckboard Boogie Boys.

A bass guitarist and vocalist, Patton, who now lives in Chestmound, Tennessee, was the Flying Burrito Brothers front man for a number of years, and he has worked with such notables over the years as Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare, Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Bush, Barbara Fairchild, and countless others.

Patton was the bus driver for both Ricky Skaggs and Delbert McClinton for a number of years, and he was partially responsible for getting Mike Kennedy’s audition with Skaggs.

Oldtimers on the San Antonio music scene will recall when Larry Patton, Larry Roberson, and Ron Knuth hit town in the 1970s. They had all been members of Hank Williams Jr.’s band, and all of them found themselves out of work when Williams fell off a bluff while hunting in Montana.

Landing in San Antonio, bassist (Big) Larry Patton, drummer (Little) Larry Roberson, and fiddler Ron Knuth soon fell in with Claude Morgan to become The Buckboard Boogie Boys.

Patton married Pamela Roberts, daughter of San Antonio fiddler and band leader Slim Roberts, and the rest is music history.

With his singing daughters, Pamela and Deborah, and drummer son Will, Slim formed the popular club  band he called The Generation Gap.

Will Roberts was the contact for this article on Patton.

“Larry is my brother-in-law,” Will said. “He is also the caring and kindly spirit who took me into his home and saved my life when my addiction to drugs and alcohol was killing me. I have been clean and sober since October of 1989, and I owe a big part of it to Larry. I don’t have the words to adequately explain what a wonderful man he is.”

Will says Patton knows his days are limited, although doctors have supplied him with no time frame.

Roberts said a GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family pay expenses. Please help if you can.