Rock For Responders Benefit Concert at Battleship USS Iowa Museum

Sammy Hagar will be part of an all-star group to perform at the Rock For Responders benefit concert on February 27th at the Battleship IOWA Museum in San Pedro, California.

Pacific Battleship Center (PBC),the 501(c)3 nonprofit that owns and operates the National Museum of the Surface Navy at the Battleship IOWA and Los Angeles Fleet Week, announced this week it will host an evening in honor of Los Angeles’s first responders, military, and disaster response agencies.

Rock For Responders will celebrate and support firefighters, police, military, and disaster response agencies, highlighting their critical roles in ensuring community resilience and recovery. Actor, comedian, and USAF veteran BJ Lange will emcee the event, with an appearance by Matt Gutman, chief national correspondent, ABC News. The program will include a concert by rock supergroup Kings of Chaos featuring Hagar, Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), Matt Sorum (The Cult, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Orianthi (Alice Cooper), Carmine Rojas (David Bowie, Rod Stewart), Brent Woods (Gene Simmons, Chevy Metal) and more. Additional artists and special guests to be announced. Food and beverages will be available onsite from various local-area food trucks.

As a regional leader in the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) program, PBC has played a critical role in facilitating the building of relationships between regional first responders, military, and emergency planning professionals through leadership summits and exercises conducted annually during LA Fleet Week. PBC activities strengthen resiliency and support recovery resulting in better-coordinated interagency response and recovery efforts. This concert announces the establishment of the LA Disaster Recovery and Resilience Collective (LADRRC),a program of the PBC that is focused on building a more resilient Los Angeles through relationships, resources, and knowledge to effectively assist in disaster recovery.

“This event will give the local community the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary work that our first responders dedicated in the effort to reduce the loss of life and destruction of property during the recent fires,” explained Jonathan Williams, president and CEO of Pacific Battleship Center. “In addition to enjoying an epic classic rock concert, attendees can be assured that the funds raised from their participation in this event are going to programs that impact lives, foster cooperation between agencies during times of crisis, and boost the morale of those who serve on the front lines.”

Tickets for the event will be free for first responders and distributed in advance by event organizers. Blocks of tickets will be available for sponsors and veterans, and a limited number of individual tickets will be available for sale to the public.

For more information, visit pacificbattleship.com.

Marching To Mars

Marching To Mars is Sammy Hagar’s first post-Van Halen solo album. It features various different musicians on different songs. It was released on MCA Records, which had by that point acquired his former label, Geffen Records. “Little White Lie” was a major Mainstream Rock hit, topping the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for five weeks.

Musical Chairs

One of Sammy Hagar’s rawest recordings, Musical Chairs features some guitars that are a treat for listeners fond of the much tougher, uncompromising music that Hagar used throughout the ’70s to build one of the largest followings for an American hard rock solo artist. With a strong backing lineup that included former Montrose alum Denny Carmassi (drums), Bill Church (bass), and Alan Fitzgerald (keys), Hagar’s music comes off lean and mean. Thanks especially to Hagar himself and longtime musical associate Gary Pihl, the riffing on Musical Chairs separates the recording from many hard rock issues of the day. Aggressive numbers like “Turn up the Music” and “Straight From the Hip Kid” do the most sonic damage on this classic red-rocker offering. When Hagar tries to deal with broader lyrical material, as on “Crack in the World,” he exposes what would later become a bit of an Achilles heal. While not as bad as the occasionally awkward, jingo-istic, or just plain goofy quasi-political commentary featured most prominently on some of the singer’s ’80s recordings, “Crack in the World” demonstrates Hagar’s tendency to reach for lyrical concepts that extend beyond his good-time rock specialty. Fortunately, Hagar sticks to the formula during most of Musical Chairs, making it an early career highlight for the singer/guitarist. ~ Vincent Jeffries

Sammy Hagar

Sammy Hagar is Sammy Hagar’s second solo album, released in 1977. It is also often referred to as The Red Album, as it features Sammy’s first anthem, “Red”, which is also the basis for his nickname “The Red Rocker”.

The distinctive cover image was shot in Stockwell Road, London, SW9 in the midst of the rows of red Pride & Clark auto shops. These red-painted buildings are also seen in the 1966 film Blowup.

The album features producer/musician Scott Mathews (Bonnie Riatt, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson) on drums and guitarist David Lewark, who also played with Eddie Money.

Sammy Hagar’s 1987 solo album I Never Said Goodbye is also sometimes known as Sammy Hagar (since early pressings were untitled, pending the results of a contest).

Nine on a Ten Scale

Sammy reflects back on the album in 2021 for the 45th anniversary:

“Aynsley Dunbar (Journey, Jefferson Starship, Frank Zappa, etc) played drums on ‘Silver Lights’. Jimmy Hodder (Steely Dan) played drums on ‘Flamingos Fly’.

Carter wrote the lyrics on the album for ‘Keep On Rockin’ and Bette Midler covered my original demo version of that, which I wrote the music.

‘Flamingos Fly’ Van Morrison wrote for me. He played it for me on the acoustic guitar, and we had to overdub all the instruments to that and then in the end he wouldn’t let us use anything but the song, so I put acoustic guitar in place of his and sang the whole thing myself instead of a duet.

Jerry Shirley from Humble Pie (who Montrose toured with) played most of the drums on the record.”

Check out Sammy’s anniversary posts on socials: 

Sammy’s Instagram post

A message from Tower of Power’s Emilio Castillo

Other notes:

  • “Keep On Rockin'”, a Hagar original, was covered by Bette Midler on the classic soundtrack to The Rose- albeit in a vastly different version. On Sammy’s version on this album, Bay Area friends and horn section Tower of Power guested.
  • The track penned by Van Morrison, “Flamingos Fly”, was not released by Morrison until after this release. Morrison included his version of the track on the 1977 released, A Period of Transition.
  • The track penned by Fleetwood Mac alumnus Bob Welch, “China”, was not released by Welch until after this release. Welch included his version of the track on the 1979 album Three Hearts.
  • “Young Girl Blues” is a Donovan cover.
  • A demo version of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Romeo” was released as “Thinking of You” on The Essential Red Collection in 2004.