File this under Bad News That Could Be Worse... In the wee hours of Saturday morning, former Carolyn Wonderland bassist and Jug O’ Lightnin’ drummer and universally beloved local figure Chris King was involved in a serious one-car accident on West Alabama. King was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital with a serious head injury, and has been in a coma since then, though King’s ex-wife Kathy says that doctors are planning to bring him out fairly soon.

“This is not a cakewalk, this is not nothing, there will probably be several months’ recovery,” says Kathy King. “But right now, there’s nothing out there to make me believe that he’s not gonna be okay.”

Houston’s music scene can get pretty bitchy, but in my damn-near seven years covering it, I’ve never heard a single disparagement of Chris King, not even one made in jest. To paraphrase one of his rare recorded vocal performances, Houston fuckin’ loves Chris King. Y’all showed as much when you voted the bespectacled drummer-bassist with the flowing Old Testament beard Local Musician of the Year in 1995 and Best Bassist on multiple occasions.

But Kathy advises you to hold off on the flowers and visits for now. He’s not quite well enough to enjoy your presence and your bouquets – yet.

“I’ve been through this stuff before [with our son], and I think I’m not being recklessly optimistic,” Kathy says. “Neurologists are always overly-pessimistic, and reading between the lines I really believe that he’s gonna be fine.”

Watch this space, or register with Chris’s CaringBridge page for further developments, including contact info. – John Nova Lomax

Some recent footage of King with Aaron Loesch at the Crossroads Blues Festival in Chicago: