Widespread Panic cancels shows due to Fayetteville native Jimmy Herring's cancer diagnosis

Rock band Widespread Panic announced Sunday that lead guitarist Jimmy Herring, who was raised in Fayetteville and attended Terry Sanford High School, has stage one tonsil cancer.

A post to the Georgia-based band's Facebook page said that the musician is seeking treatment immediately and is expected to make a full recovery.

“We thank everyone for their concern and Blessings as Jimmy and his family go through this healing process,” the post read in part.

Widespread Panic canceled shows on July 25, 26 and 27 in Asheville, according to the post, and refunds will be automatically issued to ticketholders.

The band expects to announce any changes to the tour schedule in the coming days, the Facebook post said.

Herring’s Fayetteville roots

Growing up in Fayetteville in the ‘70s, Herring was inspired by the Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Beatles and Rolling Stones records his brothers played, he told The Fayetteville Observer in 1989.

He picked up the guitar at 12 years old, and eventually started to gravitate toward complex music from Chick Corea, Al DiMeola and The Dregs, the story said.

He wanted to be a rock star, but he was focused on the music.

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"I didn't want to wear makeup and earrings and spandex, I wasn't going to do that," Herring said in 1989. "I loved playing rock 'n' roll, but the problem was I just wasn't cut out to jump 10 feet off an amplifier. I always thought the music came first."

After he graduated from Terry Sanford in 1980, Herring formed a band called Paradox with his classmate John Sutton, who played the drums, according to the story. Later, he taught at the Atlanta Institute of Music and played in Mystificus.

Herring founded bands, played with rock legends

He became a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead, according to a 2009 Guitar International story.

He has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends and The Dead, a group that included some former members of the Grateful Dead, the story said.

Herring joined Widespread Panic in 2006.

Reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at tshook@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Widespread Panic cancels shows due to Fayetteville native Jimmy Herring's cancer diagnosis