"I'm still rocking, man. I can't help myself. I just take the pension and play rock `n' roll, man," the 73-year-old said this week.
"I play every day of my life. It's a passion. Music's always there for you.
"I still busk outside the Robbie on a Friday night. People think busking's about the money, but it's got nothing to do with it. You meet so many people busking."
The saxophone-playing septuagenarian still remembers the day he fell in love with rock `n' roll.
"I heard Jerry Lee Lewis doing Great Balls of Fire in the 1950s. It set me on fire, man. That was it. That was what I wanted to do."
Mr Spence subsequently formed the Don Spence Trio in 1957.
"We were one of Dunedin's first rock 'n' roll bands. We played in `Search for the Stars' in the Dunedin Town Hall in 1958. You had all the bodgies and widgies; all the hip guys and girls. The bodgies would be wearing their drape coats and iridescent socks. Rock `n' roll was new and it was very exciting. Parents were very strict back then."
He later led the Don Spence Group, which was a fixture at the Gardens Tavern, which was recently closed, from 1969-72.
"We opened the Gardies. We used to play there five or six nights a week. Then we'd go down to the university union and play there till early the next morning."
Like all old rock `n' rollers, he has some tales to tell.
"We were in the first Dunedin festival procession on the back of a trailer and we were going down Dowling St when the piano slid off the back. That was quite a humorous thing," he recalled.
"We turned up at the wrong wedding once, too. And, in the late '60s, we got banned by the DCC for playing outside the Playhouse Theatre on the Sabbath."
He is still something of a renegade rocker, playing saxophone and keyboards in his latest band, Dodgy Business.
"Dunedin has always had a great music scene. I love how kids are coming along in schools now. You didn't have that when I started.
"My only criticism of music today is that I think vocals have gone out the window. In the old days, everyone could do a four-part harmony. The vocals today aren't strong enough.
"But, young people are still so enthusiastic about their music. It's great. I love modern music. I love any sort of music. I'm getting on now, but I still sneak into the odd bar and have a listen."
