Interview mit Lee Hutchinson von Pick Collectors Against Cancer

Please introduce yourself briefly as a person. Who are you and how did you get into hard music?
Hi, my name is Lee Hutchinson! I’m from Southampton in the UK and I have been in to metal since I was 14. I started off listening to bands like Slayer, Metallica or Nuclear Assault, but i was also in to bands like WASP, Wolfsbane and Almighty. Once I knew I was in love with the rock scene, I started to play bass and joined a band. The rest is history.

You are started PCAC in 2015. How did you come up with the idea of combining pick-collecting with fundraising?
My Mam had been dealing with cancer and I wanted to raise some money for the local cancer center. I have always enjoyed fundraising, so combining my love of metal, guitar picks and fundraising seemed obvious. I was talking to my friend Steve about my previous money raising schemes – trekking to Mount Everest base camp, swimming to the Isle of Wight in the UK, music evenings, meals – when i had the idea. All I wanted to do was raise $ 1000 at the start. As a fundraising group we flew past that very quickly so i upped the target to $ 5000, then $ 10k, $ 25k … we are almost at $300,000 now!

How did you go about it, what were your first projects back then?
When I came up with the idea, I wanted to get several rival pick printing companies to stand together to print and donate a bag of picks to create a pick set. Luckily the companies I contacted all said yes and jumped on board, and to this day they continue to support me when I approach them. The first project was the pick set, then I had Stone Sour and Skindred send me some picks that I auctioned off. That opened the door for all the auctions. Ian Grushka from New Found Glory contacted me about putting their logo on one side, and my PCAC logo on the other – that started off the artist/PCAC collaborations. Ian was an active pick collector and in a few of the pick trading facebook groups, he contacted me asking about PCAC, what it was about, how I was running it etc. After a while he proposed the idea of the pick, of course I jumped on it as I could see it opening more fundraising doors. Ian and I have became friends and he has helped raise thousands of dollars with his donations of picks, passes etc. If ever I have an idea, I know i can ask him and he will support me. I even let his daughter take control of PCAC for a week.

How is PCAC organized today? How many people are involved and how much time are you investing in the project?
I still do most of the stuff, I post on Facebook, where all the action happens, and on Instagram, I deal with the bands, managers, promoters, I pack and post all the auction wins, pick releases – my record is about 1.800 picks in 48 hours, that was not fun at all, I spent an 18 hours day and a 16 hours day for that one! One of my best friends, Toby, does all the website stuff. That has helped me and reduced a lot of the time and pressure. When the website started, it was a game-changer for me. I have several people that help with pick designing. Unfortunately my friend Michael Hr Nielsen, who designed the vast majority of the picks, passed away in 2023. He was a huge part in helping me since having the idea. I have been lucky to have had Lisa Lane, the founder of EgoPicks and another one that has helped me so much over the years, and Fernando ‚Nando‘ Menotti step in where Michael helped before. I have a few key donaters that I can count on. If I want to do a game on Facebook, I can message them, asking for picks and they will arrive within days. At times I have said to one of my friends: „Do you have 100 picks you can send so i can do a fundraising game please“ and 48 hours later a small package arrives.

How does a project usually work for you, from the idea for a pick to the donation?
It really is different everytime, a simple way of explaining is I get introduced to a band member or they contact me, we set out the idea that makes them happy, we all agree on a design, and then I release them. The bands choose their favorite cancer charitites and I donate 100% of the money raised to them. I always get full approval from the artist and/or record labels/managers. I will never print a pick that hasnt been fully approved. When the artists contact me, they tend to have a very specific idea of what they want. For example Randy Blythe [Lamb Of God] messaged me, saying he wanted to do something. When we met up, he said „I want three picks in the set, on one i want something to do with surfing, as i love surfing, on another I have a photo I want to use of a lady dealing with cancer issues, the other a photo of me because its my pick set and it makes sense.“

So the artists decide which organization to donate the money from a campaign to?
Everybody I work with gets to pick their favorite cancer related charity. It’s something the artists really like about PCAC: They know where the money is going. I provide proof of all donations not only to the artists, but to the facebook group. To keep my trusted reputation, I keep everybody informed and answer any questions regarding what I do.

How do you pick the producing company for your PCAC picks?
A lot of the bands I do collaborations with are endorsed, so I have to use certain companies for those picks. But the good thing is that I have worked with pretty much all of them now, so they know what I do and its a genuine honest project. All the companies I work with, I have a long standing relationship with … and thats due to the trust thing. One of the companies said they get asked a lot for donations etc., but the way I explained PCAC made them take a gamble on me – and they loved how it turned out.

You already mentioned a few, but you’re collaborating with countless well-known bands now. How did that come about, what opened the doors for you?
It sorted of just happened naturally! I have friends heavily involved in the music industry and they told bands about PCAC, they introduced me to band members. If i release with a certain band, it tends to open a door to another band. I was chatting to somebody backstage at Download festival, I didnt know who he was … but it turned out he was the manager in a large management company. I had to contact the company about working with one of their bands and I got a reply back saying „We know about PCAC, you were talking to our boss the other week and he liked what you do so we will 100% support you, he said if you contact us we should try make things work for you.“

What difficulties or hurdles have you experienced since the project was founded?
The largest hurdle was at the start, building trust with bands, guitar techs etc. Pick collectors don’t have the best reputation with a lot of techs due to some shady characters around the world – but I worked hard to prove I was not like that. The touring world is quite small and everybody seems to know everybody. After a while people got to hear I was „OK and can be trusted“. A large gamechanger was when Tom and Sandra Araya joined in with the fundraising. It was like people started thinking „If Tom did it, then it must be OK“ … Sandra has helped raise a lot over the years! If I talk to techs now, I do hear „Ah we have heard you are one of the good ones!“ That took quite a while.

Which band or project was the biggest success for you – personaly, but also from the amount of money collected?
The most successful, financially, was the Ergon Guitar, that was huge. Adriano Sergio was a guitar tech for Anthrax. When we first met, he had the idea to make a guitar and get it signed by artists. I could talk about this project for hours but the quick version is: Adriano made the guitar, got it signed by Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Slayer, Megadeth, Lamb of God, Papa Roach, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Machine Head … the list goes on and on. It raised $13,000 in total. What I loved about this one was that it wasn’t a case of the richest person won it: I created a game, so the winner got the guitar for $13. They were presented with the guitar at Bloodstock. Not only did they win the guitar, but they got money for a flight to the UK, a hotel room, VIP tickets for the festival, a backstage tour and a stunning piece of art – a gold plated replica of the guitar shape from Dread metal.

The biggest single item auction was a bass guitar from Vman from Slipknot. I stood at a Mastodon gig in London and heard „That is Lee there!“ Vman came over and introduced himself and said !I have a bass guitar for you!“ The cool thing with this one was: The winner and I met up with Vman at a coffee shop in London, where he presented the Bass, he gave picks and custom strings, he even took the bass out and showed some different bass playing techniques.

You work particularly closely with Bloodstock Open Air, where you always produce entire pick sets. How did this collaboration come about?
The answer to this is simple … I was introduced to Alan Hungerford. Alan is one of my biggest supporters and has helped raise tens of thousands through his introductions, donations, help. Alan is married to Vicky and he introduced me to the whole family who own the festival. I was invited up in 2015 and it was such a success! The pick set idea was put forward, it has grown and grown with some huge bands being involved. My goal is to do a pick set with all three main stage headliners involved. I hope, 2025 is the year! I can not thank the BOA family enough for their support, Adam, Vicky, Rachael, Paul, Simon, Alan, Will and all the backstage staff treat me amazing and help PCAC whenever they can.

Are you aiming for extending this to other festivals as well?
I would love to work with Download Festival as I have been going to Donington since I was 16 years old. Boss man Andy Copping knows all about PCAC and even donated to get the Derek Riggs „Eddie“ pick, so fingers crossed it will happen! I did raise a few thousand a couple of year ago with picks donated backstage at the festival, and Andy picked the Teenage Cancer Trust to get the money.

Not only because you just mentioned it, but also because it was particularly cool: Can you tell us the story about the collaboration with Derek Riggs, who drew an “Eddie” design for you on a giant pick, which was then auctioned as an original and reprinted on normal picks and as a poster? How did this collaboration come about – and are more designs from him planned, or was it a one-off?
I have always been a huge fan of Derek’s work and I had the idea to get famous metal artists to draw/paint on a huge pick. I was telling my friend Kat about my idea and said „imagine getting Derek to do an Eddie on a pick.“ She told me she was friends with him and would ask, little did I know that two PCAC supporters in America had also been telling Derek and his wife Kim about PCAC. Having Kat, Jared and Mark promoting the idea worked and I had an e-mail saying it can happen! That raised over $10,000 in total. In my head a dream goal was to get Derek involved … I still cannot believe that Derek was the first to say yes to the idea!

Regarding other Monster size picks, Jason Bowld, the drummer of Bullet For My Valentine, was the first Monster size pick release, as he completed his very quickly. The next will be a Suicidal Tendencies design. Their artist Alan Pirie has already worked his magic on one and I will be releasing it soon. I do have a guitarist in a band with a blank pick, but i will keep that secret for now. There are still a few blanks left and i have my target artists, so watch this space if I can work my magic and get them to say yes!

How many different PCAC-picks have been made since you started this initiative?
Oh man i honestly have no idea, a lot! There have been a lot of picks with famous bands, fun picks for games, give aways, tribute picks, event picks … I would have to sit down and count them all, since I have one of everything I have released.

Are there any other special moments or successes that have made you particularly proud?
So many, its impossible to pick one or two things! The Ergon guitar, working with some of my favourite artists, making genuine friends all around the world, seeing the love and support PCAC has with people, standing side stage at Download festival, watching Black Stone Cherry throw PCAC picks out, then next day watch a live video of them talking about it … honestly, I have so many special moments I could list more and more. I do not take this for granted, I am so grateful that PCAC has been accepted by so many. One day I will call it a day and I will look back and have so many stories to tell! I dont want to be the biggest metal fundraising project, I just want to do my little bit, helping people whilst having fun. And for that I am very proud of what has been done.

Following on from this: What is your next milestone, what would you like to achieve?
The next one is $300,000 which I should hit in 2025. The whole project was becoming a second full time job, so I have actively calmed it down to an enjoyable level without burning me out. I just take it bit by bit now, without setting big goals. Half a million would be amazing but that seem so far away, maybe if I got some help with packing and posting that would happen way quicker, but I dont like to ask, as it’s a lot to ask people to do and I would need to trust them 100%. Another reason this seems to have worked is that the artists deal with me from start to finish – there isn’t three or four people, all sending e-mails and doing different things. They meet me and if they like me and my ideas, they know they are dealing with me until the money is donated.

How can the metal community support your initiative?
Main way is sharing posts, joining in with the games to raise money, go to the website and buy a pick if they want to help. I have a lot of items here to auction off, so right now its all about getting involved and spreading the word. I often do games to win picks in fun ways. The one thing I do that is very different to everything else out there is if you join in with a PCAC game, you will 100% win a prize: I once did a Slipknot game where every person that donated to join in won a Slipknot item – be it a pick, a pass, a setlist, a drumskin, a stick or a signed CD.

What makes the metal scene, and especially the pick-collecting community, something special, why is it the perfect „soil“ for a project like this?
The metal scence is like no other. .. may look scary and mean, but they are the kindest, friendliest people you will ever meet! My brother joined me at Bloodstock festival a few years ago. He is not a metal fan, and he was sceptical about going as he disliked the music so much. He had so much fun and found new bands he liked that he came again! He told me „It was the frendliest festival I’ve ever been to, everybody was laughing and happy – whilst looking scary.“ I was with one band a few years ago and they were full of smiles, laughing and joking. When it came to their photo, I couldn’t stop giggling at how fast their metal faces switched on and off.

The metal community is just amazing, i have made so many amazing close friends in the metal world and PCAC. I have been to other festivals and you don’t often see total strangers run up to each other for a hug, just because you are in the same t shirt or people in a moshpit roughing each other up only to smile, have a beer, put their arms around each others necks, waiting for the next song to start. Bloodstock was the first large event to happen in the UK after Covid and I’ve never seen so many people hugging and happy to be „home“ again at a gig with their favorite bands. The pick collecting world has been great, too: I have had people donate whole collections to help people, supporters use their contacts to help me meet target artists that i would like to get involved.

What do you want to pass on to the metalheads out there?
Keep doing what us metalheads do … be friendly, support the scene, if you are lucky to be given a few picks at a gig, dont be greedy – pass them on to make somebody else smile!

Thanks for your time – let’s finish with a short brainstorming session:
The appeal of collecting picks: That I can have something from a gig that when I am old and grey, I can tell a story about, where and when I saw that band etc.
Number of picks in your private collection: 2000ish … but I know some lads with well over 20,000!
Your favorite pick ever: Tom Araya’s Slayer pick from Seasons in the Abyss tour, The first pick I caught!
Your favorite PCAC pick: That’s a tough one, as they all have a special meaning. But i will go for Tom Araya’s, due to the fact his was the first pick I ever caught. I asked him in his dressing room if he would do a pick, not a Slayer design, but a Tom one and he said yes. I was shaking, I was so excited.
A tip for all those who want to start collecting picks: Karma is everything! If you are greedy, you will get found out very quickly. If you are friendly and kind, you may get sent an extra pick or two in a trade and that can help you get another for your collection. I gave a lad four or five picks at a gig, didn’t want anything back – but next time he saw me, at a Machine Head gig, he gave me a bunch of picks from that gig.
PCAC in ten years: That is a scary thought, hopefully still raising money, working with bands that are main stage acts and up and coming…. I will just be older and greyer, still smiling though!

Images courtesy of © PCAC (used with kind permission)

All other parts of this series can be found here:

Publiziert am 2. April 2025 von Moritz Grütz