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Hollywood Night! Taylor Hawkins Headlines Benefit Bash for Age of Autism, Generation rescue

Event playing

By Dan Olmsted

"We're the fun part," Taylor Hawkins said at Saturday Night's benefit concert in Hollywood for Age of Autism and Generation Rescue. "But we know why we're here."

And oh, the fun part! Hawkins and his two Chevy Metal bandmates threw down a seriously jambalistic 90-minute set of 70s-ish rock at the Sayers Club. (Taylor said in a local radio interview on Thursday it's the kind of stuff that would have appealed to a meth dealer in 1974. Actually it appeals to anyone with a rock bone in their body.)  Rolling Stone covered the showi n an article that ran yesterday.

Rolling stone taylor

Taylor is the drummer, a gig he also performs in a side group called the Foo Fighters. Actually, no! This is the side group, and the Foo are freaking world famous. But calling Chevy a side project or a cover band does nothing to capture the wild authentic energy at the heart of it all. The heart is Taylor's insane drum licks, which cause his long straight blond hair to mop his face in the manner of an Afghan hound shaking off a pesky fly.

For the encore, Taylor leapt from the drums to the main mike and wailed like a one-man Led Zeppelin. There was a whole lotta love.

And that was just on stage. People boogied In place and the Grey Goose flew, with bottles delivered with sparklers and some sort of internal illumination that made them look like lamps for library desks. But not.

Event GR Crew
The Generation Rescue Wonder Team
And wasn't that a Jonas brother over there taking it all in? "It very much is Nick Jonas," GR's exec director Candace McDonald, who knows all, and everyone, told me above the din. "It very much is." A drummer himself, he must have been truly gobsmacked.

All power to Candace, who pulled all this together with her GR staff after Taylor's sister in law, Tara, who has an affected child, got in touch with AOA about Taylor's offer to do an autism benefit if Tara handled the logistics.

AOA's Kim Stagliano pulled in GR, Sayers made a generous agreement with us, and the rest was a rockin' blast. Tara brought it all back home when she briefly told the crowd about the need to put "the CDC under pressure" to produce a vax-unvax study and end the autism nightmare.

"Tara is the reason we're all here tonight," Candace told the crowd. That's when Taylor said, "We're the fun part, but we know why we're here." His nephew -- his family -- has been harmed, and like a few million other folks, most of whom are not in rock

Event Dan Tara
Dan Olmsted and Tara Hawkins Entering The Event
bands, he doesn't like it. On the radio show, he noted how he never knew any kids like that growing up just a couple of decades ago, listening to the kind of music he's playing now.

AOA Contributing Editor and Foo fanatic Julie Obradovic floo in for the event and said it was beyond worth it, a bucket-list must do. Taylor gave her a big kiss and worked the crowd like a pal, not a pro doling out meet-and-greet quotas. Rolling Stone interviewed Taylor before the show. (One more reason to subscribe to the mag that printed and won't retract Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s "Deadly Immunity.") So watch Random Notes.

Julie and I joked that under normal circumstances we'd never get past the rope line at the Sayers Club, so hip that it doesn't have a name on the door. (I'm pretty sure Julie would, actually.)

Event Julie Taylor
Julie Obradovic and Taylor Hawkins
But tonight was different. AOA was having its first-ever benefit. Citibank was a sponsor. A rock star was on our side. Generation Rescue was beating the drums. You can turn on the TV on Monday and catch GR's prexy, Jenny McCarthy, on The View. The Foo are starting work on a new album.

 

Rock on! We know who we are, we know why we're here, and we're here to stay.

--

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

Angus

Rock on..

Jeannette Bishop

Thank you Taylor Hawkins and Chevy Metal!

Benedetta

Such talented people in the world!
From Music makers - to people with social organizational skills like Tara and Kim - to Dan that could describe it so well - that I felt like I was there.

"bottles delivered with sparklers and some sort of internal illumination that made them look like lamps for library desks."

Sigh! It makes my heart sing and I hope you all had a great time.

Soon this horrible thing will have it's own popular song -- the message will hit home to all the people and -- well we will see.

Gratitude in NC

Rock on, AoA and Generation Rescue! I think this will be the first of many benefits to come! Thank you Taylor Hawkins. I have an affected nephew too.

beth johnson

Musicians have a long tradition of benefits for worthy causes. I am humbled that these musicians generously donated their talents for our kids, and especially because they kept the focus properly on families with autism, and had a sober and respectful tone for what they are dealing with. Taylor Hawkins seems exceptionally well informed on what we are dealing with- I hope he keeps it up.

Thanks to all our friends who worked hard to pull this off. Thanks to Rolling Stone, who printed and did not retract Deadly Immunity. We know who our friends are.

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