Who is Luke Bell?
Luke Bell was a fifth-generation Wyomingite who grew up in Cody and Shell. He was a beloved son, brother, and friend, and a successful musician whose path was altered forever by his struggle with mental illness. His mother Carol has said, "Looking back, I think Luke's songs are about people pretending to be bulletproof when they are really afraid and hurting." In a Facebook tribute, friend and one-time band mate Steve Daly wrote, “Here’s to Luke Bell. All he ever really wanted to do was create community by playing music.”
His mom says Luke was born talking, and he had a love of stories and bantering from a young age. He liked playing parts in the stories he told, and until he started school he rarely left the house without a costume-- at the least a silk cowboy scarf tied around his neck into a cape. Luke’s connection to music was undoubtedly nurtured by a home full of the sounds of music playing on the radio or stereo. When Luke got a guitar for Christmas in seventh grade, he and friends Alex and Tony Browne, started their first band. From a young age, Luke’s summers were spent on the Flitner family ranch in Shell WY without cell phone or computer games. He spent his days working hard in mountain-encircled open spaces, with animals and dedicated family. One summer, he found his grandfather’s old country western albums in the basement and the country music seed was planted.
Even in the awkward middle school years when he struggled to fit in, Luke always stuck up for the outcast and downtrodden. His uncle and boss Tim Flitner wrote of Luke, “For me, the most impressive thing about Luke was his heart and soul. That part of him became so apparent when he got a little older and started working young horses. They, like most of us, respond to kindness. Even though Luke’s kindness was masked briefly at times by bouts of mental illness, it was always just below the surface. That absolute kindness and dignity were never more clearly displayed than in his last days with his family and the choices he quietly made solely for their benefit.”
Luke spent a couple semesters at University of Wyoming where he quickly found his music family. His attentions shifted from his studies to singing and playing with as many artists he could find. His voice and lyrics developed rapidly, but still, his family was completely blind-sided when halfway through his junior year he announced he was dropping out of school to move to Austin, TX and become a professional musician. Luke recorded his first album with funds raised in a Kickstarter campaign successfully launched at the Chamberlin Inn in Cody, WY.
Luke never met a stranger, and he left an impact on all those that knew him, briefly met him, or simply loved his music. As his family liked to say of him, he sucked all of the oxygen out of the room, he argued and resisted guidance and the worn trail, and he often wore people out with his energy, his creative ideas, and his endless talking. But, also, as is evidenced by the tremendous outpouring of loving messages, stories and photos of the many happy times with Luke Bell, he never failed to make us laugh and feel our connection to the great common thread of our humanity. Luke Bell was kind, goofy, generous, maddening, caring (especially to children and animals), gifted, funny, and in the end, he suffered deeply from severe mental illness. We are grateful he is finally at peace.
When Luke began to experience symptoms of mental illness, he was without health insurance. Oftentimes, the expense of therapy was a barrier to Luke's ability and willingness to reach out and ask his therapist for help. It feels meaningful to us to use his legacy to support others seeking help, so that they might heal. Funding for this program is made available through royalties from Luke's music, as well as grants and private donations.
Wyoming PBS documentary short “A State of Mind”