When the dust settles on tonight's big civility fund concert at the Tucson Arena, we may not remember every song we heard, every name on the bill or every speech given.
But we will not forget that for a few hours the arena was packed with our neighbors and the stage filled with politically and musically diverse artists and celebrities.
"Everyone has different opinions," said Ozomatli frontman Raul Pacheco, whose band is breaking its nearly year-old Arizona boycott to perform. "That's what the whole point of this is about - that people with different opinions can get together … and express our opinions without violence."
All of the artists on the lineup are similarly motivated. We talked with several of them about what civil discourse means to them and how their music and their presence here today will help us find common ground.
Cathalena E. Burch
JACKSON BROWNE
Everyman's music, activism intertwined
Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne - a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, and the headliner and the draw for many of the performers who signed onto tonight's bill - has been performing professionally for more than 40 years.
Musically, he's best known for his hit-making years in the 1970s and 1980s. His first early-'70s radio hit, "Doctor My Eyes," from his "Jackson Browne" album, was followed by a million-selling album, "For Everyman." He also had co-writing credits with Glenn Frey on the Eagles' hit "Take It Easy." His 1976 album, "The Pretender," contained the hit single of the same title and is on the Rolling Stone list of 500 all-time great albums.
But even before his solo career, Browne was highly regarded as a songwriter in the mid-1960s Los Angeles music scene, and he briefly was an early member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Browne's no newcomer to charitable causes, sometimes social (Amnesty International, Central America), often environmental. He was involved in the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) No More Nukes Concerts with Bonnie Raitt. And he's played a number of benefit shows in Tucson, including one for the Sanctuary movement, which in the 1980s supported the smuggling of political refugees from Central America (primarily El Salvador and Guatemala) into the United States through Mexico.
Even when he's not playing a benefit concert, he's known for supporting, both vocally and financially, causes he believes in. His website, www.jacksonbrowne.com, is loaded with information and links to the dozens of causes he supports.
"I grew up in the crucible of the '60s with the civil-rights movement," Browne said, explaining why his music and his activism are so deeply intertwined.
"Right at the same time I discovered music - folk music and rock 'n' roll, Bob Dylan - you had this really hard-fought battle to end segregation, to address long-standing injustices in our society.
"The first time I spent all night listening to really deep R&B was in L.A., a meeting of civil-rights activists (in 1964 or '65, he said), the Congress of Racial Equality, a group I had joined," Browne said in a phone interview last week.
"Music is good for this. It sustains you when you're weary; it gives you heart to continue."
Browne said he doesn't remember where he was when he heard about the January shootings in Tucson. But he recalls his reaction, feeling that it was "just so horrendous, such a blow to the idea of what we think we're doing here and such a blow to the concept of our freedoms, the idea that we have a society in which you can go anywhere and do what you want … a blow right to the center of what we believe."
Among the other questions it raises, Browne said, is the issue of "where society is headed, and where our entertainments are leading us. Because we are so good at making films and so good at making imagery that we have to be concerned."
Yet Browne said he didn't have a problem with heading the concert bill with Alice Cooper, an entertainer known for his violent portrayals in concert, including simulated beheadings.
"I think it's an intriguing bill. I've got to say the first thing when we heard back that Alice Cooper was interested in doing this and Sam Moore and Nils - it's so diverse."
Browne said he was excited about playing with Ozomatli, a band he likes. And Ozomatli has ties to some of his band's members. Browne said he was pleased that they decided to play the show in Tucson despite their membership in the Sound Strike musicians. The group is boycotting Arizona because of the state's anti-illegal-immigration law known as SB 1070.
Browne said he was not asked to join Sound Strike, but he has taken part in boycotts.
"I was part of the effort not to play in South Africa" during the anti-apartheid movement. "That is the same principle. You pick your battles," Browne said. He said he has longtime ties to Arizona, having spent time just driving around the state as a young man and later playing a long-running concert series in Sedona benefiting a Native American scholarship fund.
But he said it was his longtime relationship with promoter Danny Zelisko that sealed the deal.
"I'm not buddies with all the promoters I work with, but Danny and I are really good friends," Browne said of Zelisko, the former head of Phoenix-based Evening Star Productions and more recently head of Live Nation's Southwestern division.
"So when I heard that Ron Barber had expressed through a mutual friend that it might be good to have an event here, we started calling Danny to see how feasible it was," Browne said.
It also helped that he had known Tucson promoter Ted Warmbrand for more than 20 years. Warmbrand is a longtime Tucson activist who has a not-for-profit operation, Itzabouttime Productions, that raises money for causes with musical performances. Warmbrand said he met Browne in the 1980s when they were both involved in the Sanctuary Movement.
Browne said working with people he trusts, and having people in his own organization who are experienced in benefit concerts and causes, helps him decide which causes to support with his time and money.
Evaluating the outcome is another matter.
"I don't know how you would evaluate this concert except by how people feel when they leave," Browne said of measuring its success. "We really only mean to lend our support and lend the best of ourselves to heal and persevere with what is good in Tucson. And I don't know how to measure that."
Browne said he sincerely believes it can make a difference, because it did for him when he went to that first civil-rights meeting.
"Music is such a big part of our lives. It changes your life. It changes everything. Sometimes it simply gives you the strength to continue."
Dan Sorenson
ALICE COOPER
No macabre makeup: 'Arizona citizen' on stage
After 45 years of shocking and rocking fans with his theatrical live shows and such iconic hits as "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "School's Out" and "I'm Eighteen," Alice Cooper is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Dressed in the macabre black makeup and metal-spiked leather that is their signature look, the glam heavy-metal rocker and his original band will perform during Monday's induction ceremonies in New York City.
But tonight, when he shares the stage with Jackson Browne and his band at the Tucson Arena, there will be no stark makeup or shocking costume.
Cooper is performing as "Alice Cooper, Arizona citizen."
"When they called me up, I said, 'Of course I will come down.' Wouldn't it kind of be my duty to come down there? This is my state," he said last Thursday from Phoenix, which is where he grew up and where still calls home.
He will join some other big names in music - David Crosby, Graham Nash and Jennifer Warnes among them - and some fellow Arizonans - Tucson's Calexico, Phoenix's Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and Scottsdale's Jerry Riopelle and Nils Lofgren - for a concert that checks egos and agendas at the door.
"Hopefully it soothes a wound. It puts stitches in a wound," the 63-year-old Cooper wished aloud. "Tucson was greatly wounded in this thing on a lot of levels. Arizona was greatly wounded on a lot of levels. Like anything else, it was a total act of insanity. There was no rhyme or reason behind the shootings. There was no political reason behind the shootings. It was one insane person's anger. It shouldn't reflect on the state or (Gov. Jan Brewer) or anybody else. We were a victim of an act of insanity. How do you soothe that? Well, sometimes music does a lot to soothe that.
"I think anybody that was called was going to show up," he added. "Rock 'n' roll has a history of being very good about charity."
Cooper will perform three or four songs with Browne and his band. It will be the first time the pair share a stage.
He is confident that the music will come off seamlessly. His songs are so iconic that surely every professional rocker out there knows them, he said with confidence earned by a remarkable four-decade career. Cooper, whose stage antics included famously appearing onstage with a guillotine, opened doors for such bands as Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Gwar and Rob Zombie.
Cooper also imagines other pairings that could occur tonight. And then perhaps at the end, all of the musicians on the bill will come back on stage and do one final song. Cooper is pushing for something that unifies - like the Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends" or "We Are Family," made famous by Sister Sledge.
Cooper, who owns the popular Alice Cooper's Town restaurant behind Chase Field in Phoenix, plans to leave Friday for New York. He and his band will spend a few days rehearsing for Monday's ceremonies, which he called "45 years in the making."
Cathalena E. Burch
OZOMATLI
Activist band hopes to bring people together
Raul Pacheco turned on the news that Saturday in January and watched the drama in Tucson unfold like a bad dream.
Six people dead, another 13 injured in a hail of bullets that lasted all of 15 seconds.
"We just felt it was a horrible thing," he recalled last week.
For the first time in nearly a year, Pacheco and his Los Angeles Latin rock band, Ozomatli, felt sympathetic for Arizona - a state the band had vowed last May that it would not step into until Arizona eased its anti-illegal-immigration stance.
But this singular event and its ripple effect gave the band an excuse to change the subject for one night.
Tonight, they'll join folk-rocker Jackson Browne and a diverse cast of musicians from Delta bluesman Keb' Mo' to singer-songwriter Dar Williams in a concert for the upstart Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding.
"This seems like a cause that's worthy. It supercedes other issues that are happening, and it ties into it in certain ways," Pacheco said, confirming that the band is still part of the boycott over the controversial Arizona law known as SB 1070. "We feel it's important to be able to stand up in that arena and say that it's important to support the people affected by that tragic event. The boycott is about tax money. Most of this money is going to a cause we think supercedes all that."
Social causes are nothing new for the seven-piece multicultural Ozo, which has a long and loyal following in Tucson and was a regular to our stages over its 15-year career. The culture-mashing band - which fuses salsa, hip-hop, African, cumbia, samba, funk and urban Latino into a hugely energetic party - was born during the heated labor disputes in its native Los Angeles in the 1990s.
Over the next several years the musicians became the city's unofficial ambassadors through appearances at pep rallies and protest marches and on five studio albums rich in musical activism. (The city will honor the native sons with "Ozomatli Day" on April 23.)
They've also played free concerts for victims of China's 2008 earthquake, as well as in a U.S. State Department-sponsored swing through Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, where they extended humanitarian aid at HIV and AIDS clinics and orphanages, and through refugee programs.
Pacheco said Ozo got involved in tonight's civility concert with a phone call from headliner Jackson Browne's camp. It took very little persuading. It was a chance to "bring people together for a moment" with one mission: redefine the way we treat one another.
"Civility is being able to express your opinions without violence," Pacheco said. "In an event like this (the Jan. 8 shooting), there's a lot of ripple that's going in many, many different layers. Whatever the difference of our opinion, this is something that we feel we can all agree on. The basic fact of helping … everyone who was affected by this and bringing attention to it and raising money for it - that's what it's about."
Since Ozo last played Tucson, the band has released the critically acclaimed record "Fire Away" and has launched a series of family-friendly Ozo Kids Concerts.
"I find it to be very, very energizing," Pacheco said of the three kids shows the band has done since late last year. "It's a different kind of energy. It's way less aggressive. It reminds me of why I play music, the joy of it."
By year's end, the band hopes to release a kids' record and add more family-friendly shows.
Cathalena E. Burch
DAVID CROSBY
Troubadour has a code that he can live by
David Crosby said deciding to participate in the civility concert with Graham Nash was an easy call on a couple levels.
"Why? That's easy. Jackson (Browne). He and I have been friends for a very long time. He always does his homework on stuff. If he says, 'It's a good idea,' " Crosby said he knows he can count on it being a good cause and a well-run benefit.
Crosby and Nash, of folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (when joined by Neil Young), both have long histories in music and activism. Crosby was a founding member of the Byrds, and Nash, British Invasion group the Hollies.
Crosby and Nash have been touring together as a duo, and occasionally reunite with Stephen Stills, and more rarely, Young.
Both have been involved in benefits for social and environmental causes, sometimes with Browne.
"The idea of getting people talking instead of shooting each other is irresistible," Crosby said of one of the concert's goals.
Crosby is used to making quick decisions. He recalls the moment he saw the famous May 1970 photo of a grief stricken girl next to the body of a Kent State University student who had just been shot to death by National Guardsmen during a campus protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Crosby said he was with Young. "I handed him the picture," Crosby said. "I handed him the guitar. He wrote the ... song ("Ohio"). I got on the phone and said, 'Nash, get us a studio now! I don't care what studio.'"
They met at a Los Angeles studio, recorded the song in a few takes and Crosby said none other than Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegun got on a plane with the master, delivered it to the people in New York City who got it pressed.
He said it was probably the quickest that an idea went from being written to climbing up the charts (it reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 a few weeks later.)
Crosby said Young's song also served as an example of Nash's commitment to doing the right thing.
"Nash had 'Teach Your Children' halfway up the charts and he pulled it so this ("Ohio") could go. That's Nash for you," Crosby said.
"There was," he said of the decisions involved by the band's members, "no discussion at all.
"That was probably us doing our best job as troubadours," Crosby said.
Crosby, who had highly publicized arrests, including prison time, involving drugs and firearms during his wild days, said he wouldn't be surprised if his participation in tonight's civility concert sparks criticism.
"I've taken grief for just about everything, I'll take grief about that," he said.
As for guns, he said, "I think people have a right to own them, but I don't think anybody needs to own an automatic weapon, short of the SWAT squad or the military.
"I grew up on a farm, got a .22 when I as 12 and learned to be a rifleman. But I do not carry a gun. I would not choose that as a path. I would choose trying to talk.
"I'm going to do what I think is right, which is support this," Crosby said.
Dan Sorenson
NILS LOFGREN
Concert something positive for victims, family members
Singer-songwriter and E Street Band lead guitarist Nils Lofgren is looking forward to tonight's civility concert as a chance to get together with old friends, put on a quality show for the audience, and contribute to a good cause.
"It will be good to be part of something," said Lofgren, who moved to Scottsdale 15 years ago from the Washington, D.C., area.
"I didn't grow up around guns," Lofgren said. "But I'm living in a very liberal gun state in a country that's liberal about guns. I'd like to think most gun owners are responsible. Sadly it's the kind of weapon that if used irresponsibly can quickly turn tragic."
One of many big-time rockers living in Scottsdale, including Alice Cooper and concert promoter Danny Zelisko, Lofgren has played guitar for Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band for nearly 30 years. He has also had a solo career and played on dozens of other albums.
He's met and played with a lot of rockers in that time, playing huge concerts with Springsteen, doing club and theater tours with his former band Grin and with Ringo Starr's All-Stars in addition to as a solo artist.
He's also done his share of benefits, too, including Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding benefits for children's charities. Lofgren said he's confident this one will go well, as both a musical event, and as something that will raise a significant amount of money and get it to the cause.
"I think between Jackson, Alice and Danny, I think it'll be handled efficiently," he said.
"I'll probably go out and do a number at the piano and put the Strat on and turn it up to 11 for a couple tunes," Lofgren said.
"As tragic as the shooting was, it will be good to be part of something positive for the victims and families. I hope it will be a ray of hope for the survivors."
Dan Sorenson
If you go
• Tucson benefit concert for the Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding.
• Featuring: Jackson Browne, Alice Cooper, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Sam Moore, Nils Lofgren, Jerry Riopelle, Keb' Mo', Jennifer Warnes, Ozomatli, Dar Williams, Calexico, Roger Clyne, Joel Rafael and Quiltman.
• When: 6 p.m. today.
• Where: Tucson Arena, 260 S. Church Ave.
• Tickets: $27, $42, $67, $97 and $252 through www.ticketmaster.com or the box office through showtime. As of Wednesday, between 4,000 and 5,000 of the 8,000 tickets had been sold.
• Speakers include: Ron Barber; Mayor Bob Walkup; U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez; and Emily Nottingham, mother of slain Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman, who was one of six people killed.
