Kelsey "Kels" Andrew Koch, 58, of Bozeman, Montana, died on February 24, 2026. During a checkup after a recent heart attack, he suffered a fatal allergic reaction to contrast dye used in an echocardiogram.
Kels was born on May 14, 1967, in Billings, Montana, to Raymond "Roger" and Patricia Koch.
He was preceded in death by his sister, Honey Koch; father, Roger Koch; and his spiritual forebears, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Lou Reed, and the Shangri-Las.
He is mourned by: his devoted-to-a-mythological-level mother, Patricia Koch; sister, Loy Koch, husband, Tim, and their children; stepsister, Mink Reiter and husband, Michael; cousins, Larissa and Eivind Forseth; former wife and constant friend, Colette Huff; the Danzer, Fehlberg, Firehammer, Golding, Goodwin, Kehoe, Martin, Sanchez, and Vowell families; boyhood Billings chums; two generations of listeners to his radio shows on Bozeman's community station KGLT, including, most recently "Shake Appeal" on Tuesday mornings, which began with Iggy and the Stooges and signed off with the Velvet Underground with all the rhythm and/or blues, rockabilly, Japanese women, British blokes, old country crooners and young punks only Kels would exhume and juxtapose; customers at his record store and round-windowed dream house, The Wax Museum on E. Mendenhall Street, to whom he was an elder, educator, neighbor, pal, good-kind-of-capitalist and archivist of the Anglo-American soul; comrades from his years playing music and working at record stores (such as the storied Ernest Tubb Record Shop) and radio stations in Seattle, Austin and Nashville (including his co-host on "Hipbilly Jamboree" on WRVU, Randy Fox, with whom Kels introduced, on air, heritage country legend Charlie Louvin of the Louvin Brothers and punk firebrand Jello Biafra; bandmates in (and fans of ) his various bands, including Beat Nothings, Bozeman's pre-eminent garage band of the second half of the 1980s (no offense, Dashing Catholics), Donovan's Brain with coconspirator Ron Sanchez, and, since 1994, his signature outfit the Million Sellers, whose sound he once described, with rigorous scholarship if questionable capitalization, "If it's creaky ol' Blues and Hillbilly stuff from the '20s and '30s, R&B/Jump Blues/Boogie Woogie from the '40s and '50s, original era Rockabilly and Garage Rock, Surf, Girl Group, '60s Pop and Soul, or Punk/New Wave era rave-up's and whatnot, then WE DIG IT, and it's probably in the mix in there somewhere."
Kels, who started working as a DJ at KGLT as a Montana State University student in 1985, died wearing a KGLT t-shirt and his ashes wear it forever. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the station: https://kglt.net/ [kglt.net]
Memorial details are forthcoming. To honor his memory, force yourself to reconsider the Elvis song you justifiably hate the most, bring a colossal vat of homemade salsa to every Thanksgiving and think of him every time you hear "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" by the Kinks. Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. www.dokkennelson.com.
