Look To The Stars News: Don Henley

Early Tickets To Farm Aid Go On Sale Today

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:30:00 -0000

Pre-sale tickets to this year’s Farm Aid concert are available today, July 17.

The concert will take place on October 4 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The annual event is set to include Farm Aid board members Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and John Mellencamp, with more acts to be announced soon.

“Just as rock & roll is loud and proud, so is Farm Aid,” said Neil Young. “Farm Aid’s greatest accomplishment, I believe, is in the spirit. It’s the fact that we represent the spirit of the good fight, to keep something good happening. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger….”

Now entering its 24th year, Farm Aid has raised more than $23 million for family farms and organic agricultural initiatives since the first concert in 1985. A plethora of stars have appeared at the concerts to increase awareness of the importance of family farms over the years, including Jon Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Vince Gill, Sammy Hagar, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Charley Pride, and Lou Reed.

Every year Farm Aid funds farm support organizations that assist farmers with services including financial and credit counseling, legal advice, and disaster and emergency services. However, without the nation’s attention and support, Farm Aid’s work could not continue. It is the annual high-profile concert that ultimately keeps Farm Aid alive and running.

Pre-sale tickets are only available to Farm Aid members. General public tickets go on sale July 25. To find out more or purchase tickets, visit the official website.

Take It To The Limit With A Signed Eagles Guitar

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Classic rock legends The Eagles are about to set off on their 2009 Long Road Out Of Eden tour, and to celebrate they are auctioning a signed guitar for charity.

The fantastic Takamine G-Series acoustic guitar has been signed by band members Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Scmidt, and proceeds will go to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Also going under the hammer this week for the charity are guitars signed by Miley Cyrus and Brooks and Dunn, as well as signed memorabilia from the Grateful Dead, Jewel, Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsay Buckingham, Scarlett Johansson, Maroon 5, New Kids On The Block and many more.

To view the items and make an offer, head to the Charity Folks website.

Signed Eagles Guitars On Sale For Conservation

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:30:00 -0000

A limited number of Takamine acoustic guitars, hand-signed by the Eagles, are being made available for charity.

The guitars – signed by Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey, and Timothy B. Schmidt – will benefit the Walden Woods Project, a nonprofit group headquartered near Boston. The organization is leading the fight to preserve historic Walden Woods — the birthplace of the American conservation movement and the setting for Henry David Thoreau’s famous writings on the environment and social reform. The Walden Woods Project’s national and international programs for teachers and students are designed to provide the next generation with the education and motivation they will need to meet the global environmental challenges of the 21st century.

The instruments come in two different colors – natural and black – and are available through the Eagles website for US$2,500.

Oceana Awards To Honor Clinton And Sting

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Bill Clinton, Sting, and Trudie Styler will be honored at the annual Oceana Partners Awards this weekend.

Chaired by Sam Waterston and Ted Danson and hosted by Pierce Brosnan, Ron Howard, and Robert Redford, the event honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions through their personal commitment to the cause of protecting and conserving the environment. Past honorees include Ted Turner, Don Henley, James Cameron, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and Christopher Reeve. Past hosts have included Salma Hayek, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ron Meyer and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Bill Clinton has been selected as this year’s recipient because his Clinton Climate Initiative – launched in 2006 – works with over 40 of the world’s largest cities to reduce greenhouse emissions. Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, were chosen due to their efforts to raise more than $25 million dollars through 15 benefit concerts for The Rainforest Foundation, which has now expanded to a network of interconnected organizations working in 23 countries around the globe.

The event will take place at the Pacific Palisades home of Jena and Michael King on Saturday, October 18, and will begin with a VIP reception at 5:30PM, followed by a cocktail party at 6:00PM and the awards presentation at 7:00PM.

Ticket information can be found at the Oceana Partners Awards website.

Andre Agassi Grand Slam For Kids This Weekend

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow, The Killers and David Spade will headline the 13th annual Andre Agassi Grand Slam for Children benefit concert in Las Vegas this weekend.

“I’m thrilled to have so many amazing performers donate their talents to help us help children,” said Agassi. “We look forward to celebrating with our partners what we’ve accomplished in Las Vegas with the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy and our future efforts to transform public education for underserved children nationwide.”

The concert will raise funds for the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which provides recreational and educational opportunities for at-risk boys and girls. The concert will be preceded by an invitation-only concert tonight – October 10 – featuring James Taylor and Five For Fighting’s John Ondrasik.

“This year the Grand Slam for Children is being held at Wynn Las Vegas, which offers a first-class, intimate experience for our guests,” said Agassi. “The event is sure to be a hit with top exclusive entertainment at this beautiful venue.”

Since its inception in 1995, the Grand Slam for Children has been distinguished by its roster of entertainers, including Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Jerry Seinfeld, Stevie Wonder, Ellen DeGeneres, Jamie Foxx, Robin Williams, Don Henley, Tony Bennett, Luther Vandross, Usher, Goo Goo Dolls, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer, Ray Romano, Lionel Richie, Carlos Santana, Seal, Duran Duran and Josh Groban. More than 98,000 fans and VIP guests have attended the past 12 Grand Slam events, raising more than $70 million for charity.

Agassi’s 2008 Grand Slam for Children will take place tomorrow night, October 11, with musical direction by David Foster. More information about tickets can be found at the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation website.

Farm Aid 2008 To Rock New England

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Rocker John Mellencamp has unveiled the main acts set to kick up a storm at Farm Aid 2008.

The concert – which will take place on September 20 – will be held for the first time in New England, and will see performances by Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, and Willie Nelson, all of which are on the board of directors for Farm Aid. More acts will be announced over the next few weeks.

“We are proud to bring our annual Farm Aid concert to a region that has such strong agricultural roots and to the many people who love to eat the good food grown in New England,” said Nelson, Farm Aid’s president. “I’m looking forward to bringing my friends together on the Farm Aid stage to celebrate and support family farmers.”

Now entering its 23rd year, Farm Aid has raised more than $23 million for family farms and organic agricultural initiatives since the first concert in 1985. A plethora of stars have appeared at the concerts to increase awareness of the importance of family farms over the years, including Jon Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Vince Gill, Sammy Hagar, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Charley Pride, and Lou Reed.

“New England was built on the strength of independent family farmers,” said Mellencamp. “We can honor that independent spirit by joining Farm Aid to grow the movement that is changing the way all of America eats.”

The concert will take place at the Comcast Arena in Mansfield. Tickets go on sale July 28 through Ticketmaster.

Bono's Fishy T-Shirt Benefits African Farmers

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:41:01 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Bono has designed a new T-shirt for charity, joining a host of other celebrities in an on-going and major charity campaign.

The 47-year-old singer from U2 is the 25th artist to design a shirt for Hard Rock Café’s Signature Series clothing line, an initiative started in 1990 as a way for musicians to raise money for charities of their choice. Sales from the shirts have raised over $6 million for a variety of causes.

Bono’s creation, available for $26 from the Hard Rock website, features his stylized drawing of a fish soaring past the moon, and is adorned with the words “Fish Can Fly”, as well as his signature. 15% of the proceeds will go to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Conservation Cotton initiative – a scheme designed to lift African farmers out of poverty by providing education on proper land management, organic cotton growing techniques, and wildlife conservation. The shirts will also support the trade for aid ethos of EDUN, the conscious consumerism fashion label founded by Bono and his wife in 2005, by being made from 100% African cotton and manufactured by African garment workers.

Other artists to have designed shirts for the initiative in the past include Green Day, who raised money for Amnesty International’s Campaign To Save Darfur, Shakira who chose to benefit Pies Descalzos, Ozzy Osbourne for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program, Bruce Springsteen for World Hunger Year, Eric Clapton for the Crossroads Centre, Peter Gabriel for Witness, Sting and Elton John for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Michael Stipe for Artists for a New South Africa, Don Henley for the Walden Woods Project, John Mellencamp for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation, and Stevie Nicks for the Special Olympics. Carlos Santana and Aerosmith have also contributed designs. Many of these shirts are still available from the Hard Rock website.

Bono’s “Fish Can Fly” is more than just a phrase – it is a message that tomorrow can be better than today.

Don Henley Gets To The Heart Of The Matter

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:28:52 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

The music of the Eagles is many things to many people, reminding some of their youth, and others of the canyons and deserts that make up the wild, untouched areas of America. And now fans have the chance to own a piece of music history, with the proceeds going to save the wide open areas the band’s songs represent.

Until December 31, the Eagles are offering hand-signed Takamine guitars to benefit the Walden Woods Project, an organization that is leading the fight to preserve a historic area of forest, generally regarded as being the birthplace of the American conservation movement.

The project was founded by Eagles drummer and six time Grammy winner, Don Henley, in 1990 to protect the Walden Woods area in Massachusetts from development. He spent much of his own money on buying tracts of land and making the area into a nature reserve. The area served as the inspiration for the writings of 19th Century philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, and also guided the creation of the US National Parks system. The project seeks to preserve the area, and also offers a variety of environmental programs for students and teachers. The organization recently launched an international initiative in which students from the US and abroad can take part in environmental discussions, and also mentors them in undertaking stewardship projects in their own communities.

“It has protected nearly 140 acres of land surrounding Walden Pond,” said Henley, referring to the project in Philanthropy Magazine. “About 65 percent of Walden Woods’ 2,680 acres is now permanently in conservation, but other historically significant and environmentally sensitive tracts are in urgent need of protection.”

The founding of the Walden Woods project led Henley to establish the Caddo Lake Institute in 1993, to underwrite ecological education and research around Caddo Lake, an area in north-east Texas, close to the Louisiana border. Caddo Lake, well known for its exceptional wildlife, fishing, and bird diversity, is one of the best examples in the southern US of a mature Bald Cypress forest, and the Institute aims to protect the area for all time from developers.

“Caddo Lake, like so many other ecosystems around the world, is in trouble. The health of Caddo’s intricate system of wetlands is in jeopardy. We, as humans, need to reformulate our definition of ‘community’ to include all of the natural world rather than just humankind. We need to focus on the small details in order to gain perspective on the bigger picture. Our natural resources, besides having enormous recreational and spiritual value, form the basis of our entire economy. The exploitation of those resources is key to our standard of living, but we’re not doing it wisely. We are using up our natural capital, especially water, faster than nature can replace it. This is why we emphasize the concept of sustainability at the Caddo Lake Institute.”

Henley says he first became an environmental activist in the 1970s, “That was part and parcel of being in a band back then. The activism of some of my peers, including Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and Bonnie Raitt, was a big influence on me.”

His first benefit concert was for the Chumash Indians, a tribe native to Southern California. Gradually, he became more involved in the environmental issues the tribe represented, and soon started to concentrate on other areas of concern. His first real effort at doing something active came in 1982 with the establishment of Mulholland Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the Santa Monica Mountains and foothills near Los Angeles. Since then he has been involved with a myriad of benefit concerts for the environment, often joining Sting and Billy Joel on stage.

“It’s about passion,” explained the singer. “Passion for building communities – at both the local and global levels. Nature is a part of my spiritual life. When I see nature, I see a divinity that sustains my heart and soul. Nature is a divine force in the universe.”

In 2000, Henley co-founded the Recording Artists Coalition with Sheryl Crow, to protect musicians’ rights against common music industry practices, and in this role testified before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 2001, and the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in 2003. In 2005, his wife, Sharon Summerall, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and the couple is now actively involved with organizations that assist with treatment for the disease.

In 2007, Henley was made MusiCares Person of the Year for his commitment to conservation, and raised over $85,000 for the charity by auctioning hand written lyrics to his songs, as well as other memorabilia from his career.

But the singer still wishes he could do more to save the natural heart of the country he loves.

“I have an abiding sense of awe and curiosity about the world – and I care deeply about the future of it,” he said. “I don’t put a lot of thought into whether or not I am a role model for other people’s actions. My parents taught me that if something needed doing, you get up and do it. I’ve had a great deal of help with the Walden Woods Project, not only from friends and colleagues, but from people I hardly know. I do not like to ask for help and I really have an aversion to asking for money. I wish I had the resources to do all that I want to do – to do everything that needs doing.”

The signed Eagles guitars are only available from www.samsclub.com for $2,500 each.

Billy Joel - A Philanthropic Man

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:26:01 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Billy Joel is back with his first new song since 1994 – sort of. The 58-year-old singer has made a triumphant return with “Christmas in Fallujah”, a protest song about the war in Iraq, with proceeds going to charity.

“I guess [it’s] just a cumulative effect of this war,” said the Grammy winning singer about how he came to write the song. “We’ve been there longer than World War II. I’ve been getting mail from service people over there, and there seemed to be a similar theme running through the letters, which was a sense of alienation from the home front. I think a lot of people are starting to feel like they’re forgotten.”

However, don’t expect to hear Joel’s trademark piano on the recording – in fact, don’t expect to hear much of Joel himself. The semi-retired entertainer decided to let a young musician from Long Island, 21-year-old Cass Dillon, take the lead vocals.

“I wanted to help somebody else’s career,” said Joel. “I’ve had plenty of hits. I’ve had plenty of airplay. I’ve had my time in the sun. I think it’s time for somebody else, maybe, to benefit from my own experience.”

Proceeds from the song, available on iTunes, will go to Home For Our Troops, a non-profit organization that builds specially adapted homes for severely disabled veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a cause close to the singer’s heart, and earlier this year he contributed to Five For Fighting frontman John Ondrasik’s CD produced exclusively for troops stationed overseas. The compilation also featured songs donated by Sarah McLachlan and Josh Groban.

“I don’t get up on a soapbox and do political messages,” said Joel in Rolling Stone Magazine. “I believe in talking about the human being, and the conditions humans find themselves in. I never liked it when a rock star got up on stage and told people how to vote. I find it insulting. But I believe if an artist feels strongly about something, it should be reflected in their art. Ultimately, everything’s political. Even love is political.”

Billy Joel is certainly no stranger to philanthropy, a fact that was recognized when he was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in 2002 for his accomplishments as a humanitarian. Joel is well known as being a supporter of several causes, and contributes regularly to organizations around his hometown of Long Island. Over the years he has played benefit concerts for Charity Begins At Home, Farm Aid, USA For Africa, several AIDS groups, the United Service Organization, as well as many concerts to raise money for environmental causes, such as Sting’s Rainforest Benefit Concerts in the late 1990s, and Don Henley’s Concert For Walden Woods. While on tour in Japan in 1994, Joel experienced the disastrous Kobe earthquake, and donated the proceeds from several shows to relief efforts.

Joel’s record for benefit concerts looks set to continue into 2008, with the singer being booked to headline the Soles4Souls Opening Night at WSA concert on February 21 at Orleans Arena, Las Vegas.

Soles4Souls is a non-profit organization with a simple aim – to change the world, one pair of shoes at a time. The foundation was established by Wayne Elsey during the Asian Tsunami in December, 2004, with the idea to donate shoes to people devastated by the disaster. A quarter of a million shoes were donated by shoe companies and individuals, and another three quarters of a million were donated after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“I’m happy to be able to help people with such a simple mission,” said Elsey. “The growth of this organization has been rapid and I am excited to get involved on a daily basis so that I can devote more time to a cause that makes a difference in people’s lives.”

The benefit concert will be hosted by Miss Massachusetts 2005, Cristina Nardozzi, who appeared in the movie “Ocean’s Thirteen” and also hosts “The Good Show”, a celebrity-driven television program that features stars and their favorite celebrities.

Tickets are available at www.openingnightatwsa.com.

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