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News
Rocky Mountain News
June 24, 2008
Crosby and co. play for charity
By Mark Brown
http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/24/crosby-and-co-play-for-charity/
It's a tall order, but organizers hope that when Crosby, Stills
& Nash play Denver on Thursday night it will literally save
lives.
Attorney Steve Farber was the driving force behind the date, along
with promoter Chuck Morris. They approached David Crosby to do the
show as a benefit for Farber's American Transplant Foundation.
Crosby received a liver transplant in 1995. Farber, who received
a kidney from his son in 2004, has since been a strong advocate
of transplant awareness.
After successful previous benefits with the likes of Earth, Wind
& Fire, "Chuck and I sat down and talked about it,"
Farber said.
"Lo and behold, Crosby, Stills & Nash came up. With David
Crosby sharing the experience of being a transplantee, we thought
it was even better."
"People are dying with (healthy organs) and being buried with
them instead of donating them," Crosby explained in a phone
interview. "We try very hard to help organ-donor organizations
when we can."
Benefit concerts are harder to book these days.
"Most of the larger acts have their own charities," Morris
said. "But this was something that was special. When I explained
it to CSN's people, they explained it to David and he was touched
by it."
For Crosby, it was a no-brainer. "Obviously, people die every
day for a lack of an organ," he said.
Money raised by the show "will go right into the foundation.
The foundation's prime focus is creating a greater awareness about
transplants," Farber said. "I wish there was an abundance
of organs available. But you have 100,000 people on a waiting list
in our country alone. And 18 die every day because of a shortage
of organs available."
But it won't be all about the benefit on Thursday.
"We're trying to do some more acoustic stuff," Crosby
said. "People love it when we do stuff like 'In the morning
when you rise' (from You Don't Have to Cry)."
Pointed lyrics like "you've got to speak out against the madness"
from Long Time Gone have been drawing cheers, Crosby said.
A concert film of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 2006 anti-war
tour, CSNY Deju Vu, closed the Sundance Film Festival this year
and continues to make waves.
Graham Nash recently allowed protesters to remake his hit, Chicago,
as the song, Come Up To Denver (available for free download at comeuptodenver.org).
All this has helped rejuvenate the band's role as a political force,
Crosby said.
"The shut-up-and-sing thing is people wanting what they want
and not wanting to hear what you have to say. Tough. We've been
doing it for 40 years. People should not expect something else."
If you go:
* What: Crosby, Stills & Nash concert benefiting the American
Transplant Foundation
* When, where: 8 p.m. Thursday, Wells Fargo Theatre
* Tickets: $50.75 to $100.50; log on to ticketmaster.com or call
303-830-8497
* VIP packages: americantransplantfoundation.org
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