Joey Mazzone

In lieu of flowers, Joey’s wish was for everyone to listen to his music, especially on Spotify. To honor his wishes, we will be giving out True Grit’s Bitten By A Snake album for free as long as supplies last. Check out his Linktree or use the QR code for more information.

Please share any pictures, videos, memories, or anything that feels right to you about Joey.

Joseph "Joey" Anthony Mazzone, beloved son, musician, martial artist, advocate, leader, and friend, passed away on August 7, 2026, at the age of 27, following an extraordinary ten-year battle with severe chronic and rare illnesses.

Joey was born on July 15, 1999, to Kimberly Ann Mazzone (Pintoran) and the late Gary T. Mazzone. Kimberly and Gary married on February 14, 1992, and together raised a son whose determination, creativity, compassion, and strength would leave an impact far beyond his 27 years.

From the beginning, Joey approached everything he loved with his whole heart.

At just four years old, he began Taekwondo, eventually earning his third-degree black belt and becoming an accomplished competitive martial artist. In 2010, Joey became Nevada State Champion in four divisions and won a World Championship title in Forms while placing in three additional divisions at the World Championships. Martial arts helped shape the discipline, determination, perfectionism, and fighting spirit that remained with him throughout his life.

Joey was equally exceptional academically. He maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout school and attended Bob Miller Middle School and Bishop Gorman High School. His talent for creative writing earned him scholarship recognition, but even as a young student, Joey was concerned with far more than his own accomplishments.

At Bob Miller, Joey became wheelchair certified and began dedicating his time to helping students with disabilities, becoming the first student at his school to take on that role. What began after a deeply personal conversation with God became an important part of his life. From approximately seventh through eleventh grade, he continued supporting young people with disabilities through Grant A Gift Foundation. His kindness and service were recognized with a “Be Kind” Award from the Governor of Nevada. By his junior year, Joey had received more than 15 scholarship opportunities.

Tragically, the young man who had spent years helping people with disabilities would soon become disabled himself.

On July 24, 2016, at only 17 years old, Joey developed the sudden onset of continuous, unremitting head pain that would never go away. He was eventually diagnosed with New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH), a neurological headache disorder characterized by a distinctly remembered onset and daily, persistent head pain from its beginning. There are currently no medications specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of NDPH, leaving patients and physicians to rely largely on treatments developed for other headache disorders and on trial and error in an attempt to find relief.

“Headache” hardly seems strong enough to describe the relentless pain and pressure Joey experienced 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It marked the beginning of nearly a decade of complex illness and relentless pain. To put the severity of NDPH into terms that are difficult to comprehend, by the time of Joey’s death, he had endured approximately 87,972 consecutive hours without freedom from that pain.

87,972 hours of continuous neurological pain.

87,972 hours without a single sustained period of relief.

87,972 hours of headache hell.

Over the years, Joey faced diagnoses including gastroparesis, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)/dysautonomia, autonomic failure, autoimmune encephalitis, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), tethered cord, cranial instability, increased intracranial pressure, and several vascular compressions, including both jugular veins, as well as renal and iliac vein compressions, including Nutcracker syndrome, along with additional complex conditions.

His treatments included IVIG, plasmapheresis, a craniospinal fusion in 2021, and countless appointments, procedures, hospital visits, diagnostic tests, medications, and attempts to find even a measure of relief.

Yet Joey refused to allow suffering to be the only story told about his life.

Through The Invisible Umbrella, Joey became an outspoken advocate for those living with invisible, chronic, complex, and rare illnesses. He spoke openly about the reality of being young and severely ill in a body that could sometimes appear healthy from the outside. He gave language to experiences often misunderstood and helped others feel less alone.

His advocacy extended far beyond sharing his own story. Joey traveled to Washington, D.C., where he participated in the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, using his own experience with debilitating neurological disease to advocate for greater awareness, research, recognition, and support for people living with headache disorders.

His work received formal recognition in his home state of Nevada, including a proclamation from the Mayor of the City of Henderson and a proclamation presented by the Nevada Senate Majority Leader and signed by eight Nevada State Senators. What began with Joey telling the truth about life with invisible illness grew into a voice recognized by community and state leaders, and a voice he continued using for others who were too often unseen or unheard.

Joey understood firsthand that a person can look okay while fighting an unimaginable battle underneath. His advocacy asked people to look deeper, listen longer, judge less, and understand that disability and illness do not always have a visible face.

Even while carrying tremendous pain of his own, Joey remained extraordinarily empathetic toward others. He had an uncanny ability to know when someone was struggling. He was the shoulder others leaned on even when, figuratively and sometimes literally, his own shoulder was broken. He listened. He encouraged. He showed up. He cared.

Joey’s story is not only a story of extraordinary endurance. It is also a reminder of what is lost when medicine still does not have adequate answers for people living with complex and rare illnesses. Joey was fiercely ambitious. He wanted to create, perform, advocate, build a career, have a family, and leave his mark on the world. He never lacked the desire to live a full life. His illnesses continually took away his ability to live the life he wanted. Look at everything Joey accomplished despite his illnesses, and imagine what more he could have done if medicine had been able to give him his health back.

Look at what was lost because medicine still does not have adequate answers for people like Joey.

And through everything, there was music.

Joey began making music around the age of eight. His musical journey moved through rap, punk rock, blues, and rock and roll before he found the sound that most fully represented him. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and deeply influenced and encouraged by his father, Gary, Joey honed his skills on the guitar under the guidance of his godfather, Nicky Urso Jr., developing into a powerful guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and performer.

At 13, Joey auditioned for The X Factor and advanced as far as the “Green Room.” For approximately eight years, he pursued music professionally, performing throughout Las Vegas at venues including the House of Blues, Foundation Room, Fremont Country Club, Backyard Billiards, The Sand Dollar, and many others. He was also featured through the Vegas Golden Knights Artist Spotlight.

Joey leaves behind his first album, Bitten By A Snake, recorded with his band, True Grit. The album is set to be released in October 2026 and will carry his music forward.

Joey was an old soul who seemed to belong to another generation. He loved the blues, rock and roll, a screaming guitar, musicians who meant every note they played, and songs that actually had something to say.

For Joey, music was medicine.

When his body increasingly limited what he could do, music gave him somewhere to go. He could pick up a guitar, write, record, and turn suffering into something another person could hear and understand.

While much of Joey’s released music embraced the unapologetic spirit of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, there was another part of his story he rarely had the opportunity to put into song: the reality of chronic illness.

Shortly before his passing, Joey wrote “Mourning My Life” in less than 48 hours, pouring into it thoughts and grief he had carried quietly for years. The song was not simply about facing death, but about mourning the life he wanted so deeply: a career, a wife, children, a family of his own, and the ordinary moments most people imagine without questioning whether their body will allow them to get there. It became one of Joey’s most vulnerable pieces of music, leaving behind an honest glimpse into the man behind the musician and the future he deeply wished he could have lived.

Joey’s greatest wish was simple: he wanted his music to be heard by as many people as possible.

His death does not mark the end of that music.

Joey left behind completed and unreleased work, and those who loved him intend to honor his wishes by continuing to release, share, and protect the music he worked so hard to create.

Those wishing to honor Joey are encouraged to do something that would have meant the world to him:

KEEP HIS MUSIC ALIVE.

Listen to it. Share it. Play it loudly. Send a song to someone who never had the privilege of knowing him. Support True Grit. Continue sharing the work of The Invisible Umbrella. Learn about invisible illnesses, and believe people when they tell you they are suffering even when you cannot see it.

Every new person who hears Joey’s music allows a piece of him to continue traveling somewhere he never had the chance to go.

At the center of Joey’s entire life was his mother, Kimberly Ann Mazzone.

There are not enough words in an obituary to adequately describe what Kimberly was to her son. She was his mother, his rock, caregiver, advocate, comfort, protector, constant, and his number-one person in this world. Long before illness entered their lives, Kimberly was there for karate practices and tournaments, school achievements, music, dreams, disappointments, and every ordinary moment in between.

And when Joey became sick, she never stopped.

For nearly ten years, Kimberly cared for her son through circumstances no mother should ever have to witness. She took him to appointments, treatments, procedures, surgeries, and hospital visits. She researched and advocated alongside him, cared for him when his body could no longer cooperate, comforted him through unbearable days, celebrated every victory, and remained beside him through every setback.

She nursed him, protected him, fought for him, and loved him with a devotion that cannot be measured, and Joey knew it.

The bond between Joey and Kimberly was sacred. She gave everything she could to make an impossible life more bearable for her son, and he loved her beyond words.

Kimberly was Joey’s home.

Joey also shared an extraordinarily close relationship with his father, Gary T. Mazzone, who passed away on August 16, 2023. Gary’s passion for cars and music became woven into Joey’s own life. The father and son shared a deep, encouraging, and unmistakable bond, and Joey carried his father’s influence with him through his music and throughout the remainder of his life.

Joey is survived by his devoted mother, Kimberly Ann Mazzone; his godfathers Nick Urso Jr. and Alex Quihuis, and wife Kerriann; his uncle Jeffrey Pintoran and wife Gina, and their family, Jocylina Pintoran, Jacob Pintoran, Vinny Zambrano, and Cecilia Zambrano; his uncle Joseph Pintoran Jr. and daughter Lexie Pintoran; as well as a community of people who loved him deeply.

Joey also leaves behind his chosen sister and best friend of more than 20 years, Meagan Timmons. Growing up just houses apart, Meagan had the privilege of knowing nearly every version of Joey, from young kids playing outside together to adulthood. Gary was Joey’s original roadie, and when he became too sick to continue, Meagan proudly stepped into that role, standing beside Joey and supporting the music that meant so much to him. Through Joey’s hardest years, she was also one of the people who saw what existed beneath the mask he often wore for the rest of the world. Joey was far more than her friend; he was her brother, and she will continue honoring him by helping ensure his music, story, and legacy live on.

Joey was preceded in death by his beloved father, Gary T. Mazzone; his paternal grandparents, Ned and Sally (Urso) Mazzone; and his grandfather, Joseph Pintoran.

Joey was ambitious, intensely creative, stubborn in the ways that often made him strong, deeply empathetic, faithful, meticulous, funny, compassionate, and a perfectionist. He was a natural leader and an old soul. He believed strongly in God throughout circumstances that tested nearly everything else.

Twenty-seven years were nowhere near enough.

But Joey Mazzone lived those years loudly.

He spent ten years fighting a body that continually asked more of him than anyone should have been expected to give.

Now, the fight is over.

The music is still playing.

Keep listening. Keep sharing. Keep talking about invisible illnesses. Keep The Invisible Umbrella open for the next person standing in a storm no one else can see.

And when you hear Joey’s guitar coming through your speakers, turn it up.

That is how he stays LOUD!

Follow the link below to listen to Joey's music and see his website to learn more about Joey's story.

https://linktr.ee/TrueGritBand?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=03eb41c6-9fbf-40c1-9de7-d5dc3a15d143