Our Mission

Music Cures Cancer is a Nashville-based nonprofit fighting cancer one note at a time. Since 2014, we have worked to raise funds, build community, and support patients and families affected by cancer through the power of music.”

Our Story

Music Cures Cancer didn’t start in a boardroom. It started in a hospital waiting room.
 
In 2014, founder Lee Craft was watching his family fight cancer on multiple fronts; his grandmother had beaten breast cancer only to later lose her battle with lung cancer, his mother had survived breast cancer, and his father was back at the VA hospital at Vanderbilt, facing his third or fourth bout with the disease. Cancer wasn’t an abstract cause for Lee. It was personal. And he was going to tackle this monster in the most Nashville possible; with Music.
 
One night, while working as a stagehand for a WWE event at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Lee crossed paths with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Rock noticed something was off and asked what was going on. Lee told him about his father. Rock asked him why he was working a show instead of being at the hospital, and then asked what he was going to do about it. Lee told him about the idea that had been forming in his mind: fight cancer the Nashville way, through music. Rock offered his encouragement. The next morning, Lee registered MusicCuresCancer.com.
 
What followed were years of grassroots hustle; throwing multiple events a year, writers’ rounds, benefit nights, and slowly building something from nothing in Music City. It was never enough to fully sustain the organization, but it was real, and it was growing.
 
Then, in late 2019, everything changed. After leaving a show, Lee’s car was broken into, and approximately $10,000 worth of audio equipment, merchandise, and donations stolen overnight. Before he could recover, he suffered a serious injury, falling from a ladder while painting a mural in downtown Nashville and blowing out his knee. Days later, a devastating tornado tore through Nashville, destroying several venues he had been in talks with. And then, within weeks, COVID-19 shut the world down entirely.
 
After the hum of the amps went silent, Music Cures Cancer went quiet. But it didn’t go away.
 
In 2022, a follow-up appointment for his knee brought Lee back to Vanderbilt. On his way out, he stopped in at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Centre to explore ways MCC could support patients more directly. That conversation opened a new door, the possibility of raising funds to place a dedicated music therapist inside an oncology department, bringing the healing power of music right alongside cancer treatment. It was a natural evolution of everything Music Cures Cancer had been working toward since day one.

 
Today, MCC is back, putting on events, growing the community, raising funds, and expanding the ways music can make a difference for those fighting cancer and the families standing beside them.
 
 

Meet Our Founder

Lee Craft didn’t discover Nashville, he was forged by it. Born and raised in the Nations neighborhood back when it was a working-class, blue-collar community long before it became the city’s hottest zip code, Lee grew up with Music City in his bones. He didn’t adopt the music. The music claimed him.
 
He put himself through Maryville College in East Tennessee, doing what he already knew, mixing sound and running live production for shows around Knoxville. When he came home to Nashville, the industry welcomed him back. For years he worked as a stagehand and live production tech for some of the biggest touring acts in the world, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Kanye West, KISS, WWE, Monster Jam, and more, while simultaneously building his eye for design at a Nashville music marketing company, where his work touched major festivals, iconic acts, the cover of a Platinum-certified album, and multiple Dove Award-winning projects. He later pursued postgraduate study at the prestigious Parsons, The New School of Design, in New York City.
 
Lee is a multi-discipline artist; driven, artistic, and soul-filled; working across visual, audio, and experiential fields, the way Nashville has always demanded of its creative people. Ask him why he started Music Cures Cancer, and he’ll be straight with you: part of it might be a little selfish. He knows the statistics. He’s watched cancer move through his family for years. But mostly, he just can’t stand the suffering. If music can be a light in the darkness for someone living through the worst days of their life, Lee Craft is going to be the one trying to put it there.

Lee Craft
Founder

Lee is a multi-discipline artist how has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment from Team USA Olympic team to The NewsBoys to Taylor Swift

Our Values

Music Is Medicine We believe music isn’t just entertainment; it’s a force that heals, comforts, and restores the human spirit. That belief is the foundation of everything we do.
 
Community Powered Music Cures Cancer was built by Nashville, for Nashville, and for every community touched by cancer. We don’t exist without the people standing beside us.
 
Servant Leadership We show up. We do the work. We put patients, families, and community before everything else, not because it’s easy, but because it’s right.
 
Resilience This organization has been knocked down more than once. So have the people we serve. We get back up. Every time.
 
Authenticity No corporate gloss, no empty promises. We’re old school Nashville grit through and through, honest about where we’ve been, clear about where we’re going.

Our Goals

Build a Consistent Community Presence Our aim is to make Music Cures Cancer a regular fixture in Nashville’s live music scene; hosting events throughout the year that raise funds, build community, and keep the fight against cancer front and center in Music City.

Bring Music Directly to Patients We want music inside the walls of Nashville-area medical facilities; not just as a concept, but as a living, breathing presence. That means supporting music therapy programs and creating opportunities for artists to perform intimate, personal shows for patients when it matters most.

Put Big Names Where They’re Needed Most Nashville is full of talent and full of heart. We intend to leverage both, working to bring well-known artists into clinical settings for small, meaningful performances that remind patients they are seen, valued, and not alone.

Take It Nationwide What works in Nashville can work everywhere. Our long-term vision is to carry this model beyond Music City and into communities across the country.