{"id":492557,"date":"2026-10-11T11:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T11:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/492557\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T11:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T11:34:31","slug":"earth-wind-fire-drummer-john-paris-takes-next-step-in-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/492557\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth, Wind & Fire drummer John Paris takes next step in recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 John Paris, the longtime drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire, is taking the next step in his recovery more than two months after he suffered a medical emergency prior to a show<\/a> in San Francisco and was rushed to an area hospital.<\/p>\n

In an update Thursday afternoon, the organizer of a GoFundMe<\/a> for Paris and his wife, Kathy Merrick, said he \u201chas left the hospital and begun the next phase of his recovery in rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a milestone we have prayed for \u2014 but it is not the end of John\u2019s journey,\u201d the organizer, Mashelle Clark, said. \u201cIn many ways, a new one is just beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark also revealed Paris did not have medical insurance when the emergency happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn\u2019s prolonged hospitalization, spinal cord injury, rehabilitation and continuing medical needs have created a financial situation far beyond what we anticipated when Standing With John began,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKathy and John are pursuing every available source of assistance, including Medicare and workers\u2019 compensation,\u201d she continued, \u201cbut what ultimately will be covered remains unresolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, the online fundraiser had amassed about $100,000 of its $110,000 goal.<\/p>\n

Paris suffered the emergency on Aug. 6, just before Earth, Wind & Fire was slated to perform with Lionel Richie at Chase Center as part of their co-headlining Sing a Song All Night Tour.<\/p>\n

Concert organizers pulled the plug on the gig moments before its scheduled start time.<\/p>\n

The show was rescheduled<\/a>, with a drummer set to fill in for Paris, but both it and the tour were ultimately canceled after Richie experienced his own medical issues.<\/p>\n

The GoFundMe initially helped Merrick, a founding member of Honey Cone, stay at Paris\u2019 bedside and covered travel and household expenses while they were away from their home in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cReaching rehabilitation is a victory,\u201d said Clark, the organizer. \u201cBut John still has a long road ahead as he works toward regaining as much independence as possible and, ultimately, returning home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 John Paris, the longtime drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire, is taking the next step…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,17876,74454,967,18248,172289,74455,100,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-492557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-concert","tag-earth-wind-and-fire","tag-entertainment","tag-gofundme","tag-john-paris","tag-lionel-richie","tag-news","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}