Street drummer who appeared on America’s Got Talent dies ‘of overdose’ 

A beloved San Francisco drummer who appeared on American’s Got Talent and in the Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness died last week, the latest casualty of the drug epidemic gripping the nation.

Larry Hunt, known as ‘Bucket Man’ in San Francisco, died on February 23 at the age of 64. His cause of death has not been confirmed, but his friends said KTVU died of an overdose.

Hunt was famous for filling San Francisco’s Market Street with the sound of his drums, which he played in a set he made out of buckets and upside-down pots.

She became such a fixture on the street that the producers of Smith’s 2006 film asked her to make sure she was on the sidewalk while filming so they could appear in a scene. He hosted his own Ted talk about his drumming and performing abroad.

Previously homeless, Hunt was living in a single room occupancy (SRO) home when he died. Friends said his death should serve as a warning about the limited support networks facing the city’s homeless.

Larry Hunt with actor Will Smith. The drummer appeared in Smith’s 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness.

Hunt’s friends told The San Francisco Chronicle that they were organizing a memorial for him and intend to incorporate the elements he used in his makeshift drum kit at the ceremony.

He was famous among tourists and passers-by, who often stopped to film him playing the drum. In 2016, he told The Chronicle that he “made San Francisco come alive.”

His drum boy was made of 14 five-gallon buckets, on top of which he placed metal pots and pans, a cowbell for additional percussion, and rolls of duct tape to hold the ensemble together.

“We’re all devastated,” said local musician Brian Compton, who recalled meeting Hunt in the 1990s while drumming near the UC Berkeley campus.

“Every time I would see him on the Berkeley campus playing the drums,” Campton told The Chronicle. ‘As a bass player, I liked what I heard.’

He and Hunt played together at a few college parties, and Compton recommended the drummer take his talents to the streets of San Francisco.

“There are too many crazy people in San Francisco,” Compton said, Hunt responded. ‘You’ll fit right in,’ Compton said he told her.

Larry Hunt was known for setting his sticks on fire and then licking them.

Hunt used to play drums near the UC Berkeley campus in the 1990s.

Medical examiners have yet to reveal the cause of death, but drugs are suspected.

The Rev. Charles Gray, who runs a market stall near where Hunt would play, said his death was an indicator of the kind of support needed by the city’s elderly and homeless.

‘Many of these people get trapped in these SROs and can’t find their way out. It’s a really difficult situation,” he told SFGATE.

“Whether it’s drug related or whatever, it’s a deep depression that comes with living in these conditions,” he said. “The people there need more mental services and more services that can help these people to have a more standard way of life.”

SROs are run with the San Francisco Human Services Agency. The agency told SFGATE that they can only focus on housing and food for people who were previously homeless, and that their residents need to seek mental health treatment on their own.

“I don’t have the answers, but I think checking out some of these older adults at these SROs would be more helpful to a lot of them, to see what their talent is and what they have to offer,” Grays said. ‘This generation of older people is being forgotten. When I went up, we respected the elders. The elders really received a lot of love. I am here and I receive no support.