Larry “Bucket Man” Hunt, a familiar, noisy figure known for playing a bucket drum for passing tourists on Market Street in San Francisco, has died.
Brian Compton, a bassist, music producer and longtime friend of Hunt’s who played with him frequently, said the drummer died Thursday. Compton said friends would organize a memorial service later in the month that would include the pots and drums Hunt was famous for.
Officials at the Chief Medical Examiner’s office in San Francisco confirmed Hunt’s death in an email to The Chronicle. He was 64 years old. The agency did not name a cause of death.
A well-known Downtown personality, Hunt garnered national attention when he appeared in the 2006 Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness and America’s Got Talent. He also caused controversy among local businesses, who didn’t always appreciate his almost daily concert on the corner of Market Street near the Powell Street BART station.
But tourists often appreciated the performance and often stopped to take videos with their cellphones. Hunt told The Chronicle in 2016 that he “made San Francisco livelier.”
Hunt’s unique sound came from a drum kit he built himself from 14 5-gallon buckets, three saucepans, a cowbell and duct tape. The drummer, who played his last show in January, also had a following among local musicians.
“We’re all devastated,” said Compton, who first met Hunt near UC Berkeley in the late 1990s.
“Every time I saw him playing drums on the Berkeley campus,” he said. “As a bassist, I liked what I heard.”
Soon the pair began playing gigs at college parties. Compton told the drummer that busker money would be better in San Francisco.
“There are too many weirdos in San Francisco,” Compton recalled to Hunt.
“You fit right in,” Compton told him.
Like other buskers, Hunt filled downtown San Francisco with music and energy until the city went dark in the early months of the pandemic. Hunt would not reclaim his spot on Market Street until more than a year and a half later, when many street performers returned.
Writing about downtown San Francisco’s resurgence after the worst parts of the pandemic, Heather Knight, columnist for the Chronicle, described Hunt’s self-proclaimed “trademark”: setting fire to his drumsticks and licking the flames.
“It feels a lot more like San Francisco,” Knight wrote, “when you can once again encounter break dancing, singing, strumming guitars, juggling and, yes, even flame licking on the city streets.”
Reach Nora Mishanec: nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com
