Rye Coalition Guitarist Herb Wiley Crowdfunding Treatment for ALS

Herb Wiley — the guitarist for bands Rye Coalition and the Black Hollies — is asking for help amid his ALS diagnosis. The musician’s friend set up a GoFundMe to help support the musician, who released a solo album last August.

The guitarist, who has worked with Foo Fighters, AC/DC, among other bands, has raised more than $36,500 over 289 donations.

“Herb has always been there for so many of us. Now it’s our turn to be there for him,” read the GoFundMe description. “Every contribution—large or small—will go directly toward helping Herb meet the physical, emotional, and financial challenges ahead, while preserving his independence, dignity, and joy.”

Last August, the musician released a solo album that he said “subconsciously, I needed to record them now or I might not be able to,” given his progressive neurodegenerative disease.

“The story behind it is that I wrote all these songs back in the day around ’98, ’99, and played them out a couple times using my friend Scott (Black Hollies) on drums and Justin (Rye Coalition) on bass,” said Wiley in a press statement. “Then I stopped writing the album joining Rye Coalition to record the On Top LP sessions.”

Then, Covid-19 struck and since “nobody wanted to do shit with the sky falling,” he decided to record the album in a friend’s basement. “I basically waited 25 years to record them properly with hopes to put together a band and play them out,” he explained. “As soon as I was done recording and mixing, all of this started happening to me.”