He's with the band – elderly man befriends Recycled Percussion leader

LACONIA — The idea was to give Laconia a lift up, a boost in morale, Justin Spencer told a sold-out crowd at the Recycled Percussion show on Jan. 17. He was explaining his rationale for opening the first Chaos and Kindness store on Union Avenue in Laconia, rather than on Elm Street in Manchester, or on the Las Vegas Strip.

“One, I was born in Laconia,” Spencer said, sitting on a bucket on the stage of the Flying Monkey Performance Center in Plymouth, where he and fellow bandmates Ryan Vezina and Tony Zane had just finished their trademark high-energy show, one of a string of sold-out performances around their home state. “Two, we felt it was a place that needed a lot of inspiration.”

Of all the people that came to experience the store, no one person has been more affected than Roy Small, an elderly man who lives nearby.

The Chaos and Kindness store, which sells clothing and other merchandise, drew more than 22,000 the first day that it opened, Spencer told the Flying Monkey audience. Once the crowds subsided, clerks at the store noticed that there was a man who frequently visited the store, and who could usually be found at the bin of candy that offers a single free piece to all visitors.

“He walks over there and he sits there for like an hour and he eats taffy,” Spencer said the worker told him. So he asked the clerk to text him next time he was in, so he could see why he was eating them out of business.

Sure enough, his phone buzzed the next day, and Spencer hopped in his car to confront the serial shoplifter.

“I open the front of the store, I will remember this to my dying day, and he looks over with a mouthful of taffy,” Spencer said, recalling the first time he laid eyes on Small. “He had pockets full of candy, Chaos and Kindness stickers, everything.” Meanwhile, Small clearly recognized Spencer from the Chaos and Kindness television show, which airs on WMUR and which records the band’s antics and charitable acts. “He’s shaking me, pulling my hair, he’s so excited,” Spencer recalled.

Once he calmed down, Spencer asked him his name. But Small is not able to speak, after suffering a series of strokes years ago. Instead, he pulled out a notebook from his pocket that explained as such, and gave his name and address.

“So I sit down with this man, I’m immediately drawn to him.” Spencer, who has previously spoken about being raised 'dirt poor' by alcoholic parents, said that his grandmother had a profound impact on him, that he credits her for the person he has become. “I have a huge huge sweet spot for the elderly, so many stories, so much love to give.”

In the months since, Spencer and Small have become close friends, visiting almost daily when Spencer is not on tour. They go to Funspot, drive around in Spencer’s sports cars, hang out in his lakeside hot tub.

It turned out, the two share a love for the stage. Small, prior to his strokes, was a successful performer as a Roy Orbison tribute artist. Fifteen years ago, the insult to injury was the theft of his guitars – vintage hollow-body electric guitars, the same kind played by Orbison. Spencer, along with help from their fans, came up with the cash to replace them with an identical pair they found in Seattle.

“His whole life was music,” Spencer said.

As much as he has given Small, Spencer said he feels like Small has given him back, and then some.

“I realized that he’s done more for me than I’ve done for him, because he’s made me feel that, at the end of the day, I know how much I love this man. I know how much of a void he fills in my life. I’ve done so many things wrong in my life that it makes me feel like an imperfect role model. But I know that the true me is a giver, the true me genuinely loves to help people and I genuinely love to give this man something,” Spencer said.

Karen Houle, Small’s daughter, said her father was one of the premier Roy Orbison tribute artists of his day. He toured North America, along with other tributes to artists such as Patsy Cline and Wolfman Jack. He lived the fast life, she said, until on Dec. 8, 1992, when he had his first stroke.

Since then, he has lived with Houle at her home, just a few minutes’ walk from the Chaos and Kindness store. Now 78, Small’s quality of life had started to decline, Houle said, and she was starting to look into an assisted care facility for him. Then the store opened, and things changed for her dad.

“He’s definitely getting some therapy through Justin,” Houle said. “He definitely has more to look forward to everyday. It beats living every day with just me.”

The guitars were a milestone, Houle said. Though it had been years since he last played, holding the instruments immediately brought something back for her father. “The moment he gets his guitar, he goes right back into that stance that he had 20 years ago. He loves it,” Houle said.

Spencer and his bandmates saw that, too. They started bringing Small to rehearsals, and soon enough, Small was able to sing some of the notes to Orbison’s classic, “You Got It.” Though he had lost much of his ability to perform, he still had stage presence, Spencer saw, so they added him to the band. For the nearly 30 shows in Recycled Percussion’s Holiday Tour, which had stacks of performances in Rochester, Manchester, Keene and Lebanon, as well as Plymouth. Spencer ended the show by telling the crowd about his new friend and bandmate. Then Small enters from the wings of the stage, and the audience roars.

“It’s amazing to see, I can’t thank Justin enough for what he’s done,” Houle said. She had put her father, an Army veteran, on a waiting list for the VA nursing home. “Now, if a bed becomes available, he’s not available.”