Alice Cooper, DMC, Megadeth Members Lead Grammy Music Ed Fundraiser
A cadre of music’s heaviest hitters will lead the Grammy Music Education Coalition’s nine-hour fundraising telethon, dubbed Oh Say Can You Stream, on Saturday.
, and host ’s David Ellefson will all make appearances during the broadcast, which will take place at 4 p.m. ET on several online channels. Proceeds will benefit the School’s Out initiative — which offers online lessons, instruments and gear to children and aspiring musicians during this period where school is literally out because of the coronavirus pandemic — as well as COVID-19 relief charities. The School’s Out initiative has also launched an online fundraiser FundRazr.
Some of the musicians the broadcast will feature include Ellefson’s co-host for the event, Thomas Hazaert (who is also the singer for Ellefson’s solo band), Anthrax’s Charlie Benante, Megadeth’s Dirk Verbeuren and Kiko Loureiro, former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland, the Zac Brown Band’s Daniel de los Reyes and John Driskell Hopkins, Testament’s Alex Skolnick, Carmine Appice, among others.
The telethon will be viewable on the Grammy Music Education Coalition’s Twitch and Facebook, David Ellefson’s Facebook and YouTube channels, and the David Ellefson Youth Music Foundation’s Facebook page.
“When one person suffers, we all suffer, and this is an unprecedented moment in history when all of us around the world are united for a common cause, especially in the music community,” Ellefson said in a statement. “As I saw so many of my friends who are ‘hired-gun musicians,’ session players, etc., all losing so much work, we all saw months of work vanish before our eyes. We thought we could create an opportunity to really do some good on several fronts. So many of our friends have been so generous with their time, and it’s a wonderful initiative to be able to not only give kids something great to hold onto, but also keep some of our friends working in this uncertain time.”
“When we launched the School’s Out initiative, we realized the immediate impact it had, as we got almost 1,000 applications in the first week,” Hazaert said. “We very quickly realized this was something we needed to take to the next level, and really began serious fundraising efforts to increase the scope of what we were able to do.”
Ellefson’s solo band will perform an acoustic set, which will include their new song “Simple Truth,” during the telethon. Proceeds from the single, which comes out Friday, will benefit the Italian Red Cross’ COVID-19 relief efforts.
