Wounded Musician Rebounds on Positive Note

Guitarist Larry Carlton, shot in the neck in front of his Hollywood Hills home last April 6 by two still-unidentified assailants, is back on his feet again and eager to resume his performing career.

In his first public discussion of his future since the shooting, Carlton, pale but alert, spoke in a whisper--the result, he said, of permanent damage to the nerves in his left vocal chord from the gunshot wound.

The shooting left him depressed, the 40-year-old jazz musician said, but the thought of playing the guitar again continues to buoy him.

“The fact is that I’m just a really thankful guy right now,” Carlton said, smiling slightly, his eyes brightening.

“I’m recovering fine, in a lot of pain, true, but this time next year I ought to be grooving, thank God.”

The road to recovery may be a long one for the Grammy-winning artist, one of the city’s busiest studio session men since the ‘70s and a solo performer for the last decade.

Extensive surgery has effectively repaired damage to the carotid artery, but the trauma suffered by the nerves in his left side will be slow in healing, according to his physician, Dr. Eric Schlesinger.

“The need to recover the degree of dexterity that he had before makes it very difficult to predict a time frame,” Schlesinger said.

“He was extraordinarily lucky. Considering where the bullet was, the velocity and the high caliber, the fact that he’s alive is astounding. Without a doubt, the paramedics deserve a great deal of praise.”

“I know the doctors can’t make a commitment,” Carlton said, “but all I can say is that I’m ahead of schedule. There’s no way to know whether it’ll be 9 months, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months. I’d like to think that it’s going to be as soon as is humanly possible.”

No Suspects in Shooting

On April 22, the Los Angeles City Council offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of suspects in Carlton’s shooting. The reward has since been raised to $20,000. Investigators have no suspects in the shooting, said Detective Ernie Bassett of the Police Department’s Hollywood Division.

“It looks to me as though the kids who shot him were just up to something--robbery, who knows--and they never got around to finishing it,” Bassett said.

Carlton’s recollection of the shooting seemed remarkably clear:

“It was a bit past 3 in the afternoon, and I had just pulled up to the office entrance to my house to go to work on a recording. The door was left half open because it was a sunny day. I saw a . . . dog run under the carport, with two . . . kids jogging after it. So I went to shut the door so the dog wouldn’t come in the office.

“As I got to the door, one of the kids just raised his hand and fired a gun. He stood there and watched until I fell, and then he ran off.”

Shaking his head as if still in disbelief, Carlton continued: “The amazing thing is that I actually had eye contact with him as I was falling.”

“Somehow,” he said, “I managed to walk maybe 10 paces out of the office, then lay down and told my secretary who I wanted her to call.

“I could feel the blood spurting on my shoulder, but luckily my house is located right across the freeway from the fire station, and the paramedics were there.”