{"id":2293976,"date":"2026-02-22T16:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2293976"},"modified":"2026-02-22T16:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:17:18","slug":"celebrating-lee-allen-zenos-musical-legacy-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/celebrating-lee-allen-zenos-musical-legacy-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Lee Allen Zeno’s Musical Legacy | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In his raucous \u201cSoul Alive!\u201d album, singer, bishop, mortician, limousine driver, drugstore owner, backstage barbecue vendor and father of 21 Solomon Burke testified, \u201cThe answer in life is love and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soul-singing minister continued, \u201cI don\u2019t want nobody to give me flowers when I\u2019m dead and gone. Give me my flowers while I\u2019m living. So I can feel \u2018em, smell \u2018em, see \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought about Burke\u2019s words after hearing fateful news of Lee Allen Zeno<\/a> of Lafayette. Zeno is a sideman, a musician who makes the stars sound great but rarely gets the spotlight. Zeno and his remarkable bass guitar skills helped Buckwheat Zydeco become a Grammy winner and the only zydeco band to win an Emmy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Zeno is all over \u201cNew Beginnings,\u201d the debut album and Grammy winner for Buckwheat Zydeco Jr.<\/p>\n

Since 1980, Zeno has song credits on at least 73 albums, singles, EPs and videos. They include works by Burke, Charlie Rich, Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, Tracy Nelson, Kenny Neal, Bobby Rush, Boozoo Chavis and the Neville Brothers.<\/p>\n

Zeno\u2019s bass fuels \u201cA Tribute to the King of Zydeco,\u201d which won the Best Regional Roots Album Grammy earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks after that joyous Grammy news came Zeno\u2019s troubling announcement. After fighting cancer throughout his music career, Zeno decided he\u2019s had enough. He\u2019s ending chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

According to longtime friend and supporter John Williams, Zeno\u2019s cancer count after his latest round of chemo showed his leukemia is getting worse. Williams said on social media that Zeno will now \u201cfocus on staying healthy and receiving blood transfusions as needed, in order to have more vibrant time with his family and playing his music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Williams has been on a mission to help unsung music heroes and forgotten legends. Through the years, many musicians struggled in their final days. Families had to hold \u201cbenefit dances\u201d to bury them.<\/p>\n

Love of People, Williams\u2019 nonprofit organization, has helped senior musicians with medical bills, home repairs and other financial and health challenges. Funding has come through the \u201cBlue Monday Concert Series,\u201d a blues jam which celebrated its 10th anniversary Feb. 9 at the Ruins Lounge in Lafayette.<\/p>\n

Williams went the extra mile\u00a0\u2014 literally\u00a0\u2014 in Zeno\u2019s latest cancer bout. He transported Zeno to treatments in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and beyond, before suffering a serious flare-up of diverticulitis. Williams said he will now \u201clean on all the angels\u201d that have been part of Zeno\u2019s fight.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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I hope Zeno accepts this bouquet of gratitude for a life of award-winning music in the shadows of the stars. As your friend Solomon Burke said, feel, smell, see and enjoy the flowers.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019re moved to celebrate a Lee Allen Zeno in your life with a handshake, hug or a few dollars. It\u2019s the least we can do for artists who create in the shadows, yet still bring sunshine to our lives.<\/p>\n

Herman Fuselier is executive director of the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission. A longtime journalist covering Louisiana music and culture, he lives in Opelousas. His \u201cZydeco Stomp\u201d show airs at noon Saturdays on KRVS 88.7 FM.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theadvocate.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his raucous \u201cSoul Alive!\u201d album, singer, bishop, mortician, limousine driver, drugstore owner, backstage barbecue vendor and father of 21 Solomon Burke testified, \u201cThe answer in life is love and understanding.\u201d The soul-singing minister continued, \u201cI don\u2019t want nobody to give me flowers when I\u2019m dead and gone. Give me my flowers while I\u2019m living. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2293977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Celebrating-Lee-Allen-Zenos-Musical-Legacy-EntertainmentLife.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2293976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2293978,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293976\/revisions\/2293978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2293977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2293976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2293976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2293976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}