Local DJ Battles Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

When local chocolatier, entrepreneur and DJ Marvin Lynch felt a surging headache coming on at his Concord home on June 19, he thought to himself that he was in for a day or two of intense pain from one of the multiple migraines he suffers through each year. 

However, something much more painful and dangerous was just beginning to take hold of him. Lynch was at the beginning of a spell of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, brought on by a tick bite that he had unknowingly fallen victim to on his 5-acre property near Concord Mills mall. 

Lynch’s headache persisted for four days, joined by other symptoms including severe stomach cramps, a spotted rash covering his legs and a rapidly increasing fever. It was then that he went to the hospital, where staff members struggled to diagnose him over the course of multiple visits throughout the week. 

During that time, Lynch suffered unbearable pain, hallucinations and other issues that he had never experienced even during his times in years past struggling with addiction and mental health issues. 

By the time he received his diagnosis, the DJ so popular in Charlotte’s goth scene had come as close to death as he had ever imagined. 

“By that time, I had a moment where I was just like, ‘Okay, so this is it. I’m going to die,’” Lynch recalled to Queen City Nerve during a recent phone conversation. “I felt like dying. I was dying … I just started making my peace with God. It went in a way where it’s just like, ‘Okay, so I had a really good life. I’ve done a lot of different things in my life, and probably more than a lot of people in five lifetimes. So I’m good. I’m good to go then, I guess’ … I was very calm at that point, with acceptance.”

It was in this state that Lynch found himself when a doctor who had been called in for his expertise in such areas asked Lynch to show him his hands, then told him matter-of-factly, “You have Rocky Mountain’s spotted fever.” 

The revelation came eight or nine days after Lynch began feeling symptoms, and even after he was able to begin taking the proper antibiotics, those symptoms lingered for more than six weeks. 

Friends rally for Marvin

When we spoke to Lynch on Aug. 9, he was just beginning to feel ready for a return to work. Having spent more than a month recovering from his illness, he found himself in a financial crisis — one that his friends are now stepping up to help him through. 

On Aug. 17, Tommy’s Pub will host Shake It for Marvin, a benefit show to help Lynch with the bills that piled up while he was convalescing. 

The Saturday night show will include an alternative dance party with DJ Velvetine and DJ Deathflower, burlesque performances by Anita Tool and Ciera Strange, a spanking booth, raffle drawings, drink specials and more. 

Lynch, who performs as DJ Marvin at goth and new wave nights around town, including the regular Reflexions and Requiem parties at Tommy’s Pub, said he was blown away by the support that his friends from the local scene have shown since he got sick. 

A GoFundMe set up by Lynch’s friends and supporters has nearly reached its $5,000 goal at the time of this writing. Lynch said he cried when he learned about the benefit show. 

“I lived in LA for 18 years, I would have died there … died or been on the street,” he said. “Nobody cares as much as the people I’ve met and became my friends — the whole goth scene, the whole Charlotte scene, just tremendous people.” 

Lynch’s friend and colleague Laura Grace Franklin, aka DJ Velvetine, said she helped organize the crowdsourcing campaign and benefit show because Lynch would do the same for others thanks to his “warm, kind, gentle, modest and humble soul.” 

“He has been such an amazing friend to us all and frankly he is one of the coolest, most interesting people I’ve ever known,” Franklin told Queen City Nerve. “He’s relatable, personable and funny. He’s just genuinely himself and just a wonderful person. I’m proud to call him one of my best friends.” 

Born in Belgium and raised in Frankfurt, Germany, Lynch worked as a hairdresser and makeup artist to the stars for 15 years in Los Angeles before moving to Charlotte. He designed a successful jewelry line using precious stones and leather, worked as an executive chef, and renovated houses. 

He currently works full-time as founder of Marvin’s Confections, which offers handmade, small-batch chocolates often in creative designs, including skull-shaped candies or his fine art chocolates, which come in packs of 24 placed together to make reproductions of well-known artworks like “Starry Night” or “Soul of the Rose.”  

A rare illness

Lynch told Queen City Nerve he is always careful to apply high-strength mosquito repellent when gardening in or walking around his Concord property, though he had never run into a problem with ticks before. 

In the midst of his illness, he uncovered what doctors would later confirm to be a tick bite, by then black with infection, on the back-inside of his leg near the ankle. 

“There are woods around me and stuff like that, but I don’t go in the woods,” Lynch explained. “Everything around me is clear. I always thought ticks fall on you from trees only, so I didn’t know.” 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rocky Mountain spotted fever can be deadly if not treated early. Symptoms include fever, headache, rash, nausea or vomiting, stomach pain, muscle pain and lack of appetite. 

Though it does not result in chronic or persistent infections, some patients who recover from severe cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever may be left with permanent damage including amputations of limbs, hearing loss, and mental disability. 

Lynch said that, after turning a corner in his recovery, he attempted to make some chocolate but was startled to realize he had “forgotten” the process. 

“I was just standing there,” he recalled. “I just couldn’t do it, which scared me.” 

Read more: Preventing Tick Bites (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Some weeks later, when he spoke to Queen City Nerve, Lynch said he had remembered his process but still experienced brain fog at times. 

According to the Mecklenburg County Health Department, 47 cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have been reported in Mecklenburg County since 2019. That year saw 23 cases, with every year since logging single-digit numbers. Three cases were recorded in 2023, and none in the first half of 2024. 

The department recorded 101 cases of Lyme disease during that same period. 

The numbers in Cabarrus County, where Lynch contracted Rocky Mountain spotted fever, were not readily available at the time of this writing.