Lightnin’ Larry Dupio will perform Dec. 29 at the Ocean Organic Vodka Farm & Distillery with Maui musicians bassist Joe Sterling and drummer Eric Guzman. Tonya Miller/Courtesy photo

Performing at a “Jazz & Blues” show at the Ocean Organic Vodka Farm & Distillery on Dec. 29, veteran Hawaii island musician Larry Dupio’s extensive career has included service in the Navy during the Vietnam War, playing the Honolulu club circuit, winning two Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards, opening shows for legends like Jimmy Cliff and John Mayall, and a dramatic healing encounter with Carlos Santana.

Known as Lightnin’ Larry Dupio, this gifted guitarist fell in love with the blues in high School on Oahu.

“I was about 15,” he recalls. “I got my first electric guitar and met a fellow student who had all these B.B. King and Albert King records. We poured through the albums and he showed me some licks and I showed him some chords and we kind of taught each other. I was so into the blues right then and researched it all the way to Robert Johnson. Then I listened to blues artists like Lightning Hopkins and Muddy Waters. At the same time, I had to start making a living playing music, so I played Hawaiian music at the hotels in Honolulu. I just worked until Vietnam came up.”

After serving in the Navy working on an aircraft carrier, he settled on Hawaii island in 1977.

“I was already into bands in high school, and after Vietnam I just continued on because the best thing I could do for a job was play music,” he says.

In recent years, his rocking blues albums “Lightning Strikes Hilo” and “Love and Lightning,” have won Hōkū Awards for “Rock Album of the Year.” An impressive collection of original songs, “Love and Lightning,” ranged from the fiery rocker “High Fever” to the bluesy romantic ballad “True Love” and the jazzy Santana flavored “No Rules.”

Playing at the Ocean Organic Vodka Farm as a trio, he will be joined by Maui musicians bassist Joe Sterling and drummer Eric Guzman.

“I’ve been coming to Maui for the past 10 years or so,” he notes. “I’m really looking forward to coming. I was a close friend of Willie K’s and he brought me over for his BBQ Bluesfest. I got to meet everybody and developed a cool relationship with Jimmy Dillon. He played on stage with me and that was so much fun.”

In August 2023, Dupio hosted “A Tribute to Carlos Santana” at the Hilo Palace Theatre. It was his way of giving thanks to the rock guitar legend who aided his healing journey after a terrible car crash that almost ended his music career.

“I had broken my neck in the car wreck,” he explains. “I fractured vertebrae in my neck and I really got depressed. So I made a conscious decision that the next chance I get I’m just going to do myself in, because I thought my musical career was over. I was losing sensation in my arms and legs, and the doctor was telling me if I don’t get an operation soon, I could lose it all from the neck down. I wasn’t physically able to play guitar at the time.”

When Santana performed a concert at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Dupio’s wife Caroline suggested that a trip to Maui for the show might cheer him up.

“My wife got some tickets, so I reluctantly went because I was saying this is only going to make me more depressed, you know seeing this. And it did exactly the opposite,” he says. “During the show, his music gave me hope.”

Heading to Kahului Airport the next day, Dupio sat on a bench waiting for his flight home.

“I looked off into the distance and I saw this guy was walking towards me, and as he was coming closer, I was saying to myself that guy looks like Carlos Santana. And he walked straight up to me, didn’t veer off, and he just walked straight up to me and he asked me if I enjoyed the show.

“I told him yes because it kind of inspired me to try to play more guitar, and then he asked me, ‘Well what’s going on?’ I said, ‘I have to get a neck operation and if I want to be able to play guitar anymore, maybe it would give me a chance to do that,’ and he said, ‘If it’s down to something that you really love, never give it up.’

“I took that to heart and got the neck operation at Tripler hospital,” Dupio recalls. “It was pretty touch and go. I asked the surgeon before we started what are my chances of coming out of this OK. He said, ’50-50.’ You know 50-50 is good enough for me and I just went with it. A year later I was able to play guitar and start all over again. And I owe it to Santana that he inspired me to not give up.”

The Larry Dupio Trio will perform at the Ocean Organic Vodka Farm & Distillery on Dec. 29. The lineup includes Dr Nat and Francoise Kie. Music runs from 4-7 p.m. Admission is $5.