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(Winter 2004) by George Dionne
It was announced earlier this week that Tesla will be headlining the Station
Family Fund Relief benefit concert with Shinedown, and Vanilla Fudge featuring
Carmine Appice & Pat Travers February 25th at the Providence Performing
Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The benefit concert, hosted by the
Wake Up The Love Foundation, marks the second anniversary of the tragic fire
that claimed 100 lives and left hundreds more injured or disabled. Rock Is
Life was granted an exclusive interview with Tesla drummer Troy Luccketta
to talk about his involvement with the event.
RIL: How did you and Tesla get involved with the Station Family Fund Relief
concert?
TL: Tesla was playing a show at Lupo’s
at The Strand [Providence, RI – May 2004], and a couple of the survivors
had come down to see the show. I had met a few people that night in passing,
but we were doing
meet-and-greats and stuff like that, so I didn’t really have a chance
to sit down and really talk with them. I believe it was Victoria from the
Station Family Fund that left a package addressed to Frank [Hannon] on the
bus [actually Scott, Stephanie, and Nicole] with materials about there organization.
It sat on the bus for a few days. I picked it up, brought to my bunk, and
read
all
about
them.
After
reading the materials I thought, what can I do to help? I called The Station
Family Fund and suggested maybe I could purchase twenty acoustic guitars,
have the band sign them, ship them off to them, and maybe they could make
some decent money. I wanted to do something that would be effective, rather
than sending signed symbols or something like that.
They put me in touch with Todd King. I started really
looking into the Station Family Fund organization and what they do. As
I gathered more information,
I realized that they were getting no help from the state or the federal government.
Sometimes you have to be weary of non-profit organizations you want to get
involved with, you don’t want like thirty cents going to the charity
while the rest goes elsewhere. When you make a donation you want them to
get 100% of the proceeds like the Station Family Fund. Todd and I were talking
about the acoustic guitar thing when he mention something to the effect that
he was surprised that no one came to their aid with a benefit concert or
anything like that. I told him to give me twenty minutes to make some phone
calls. I called all the guys in the band. We had lost a dear friend of ours
who was our personal assistant, Jeff Raider.
RIL: You did?
TL: Yeah, he died in the fire with his girlfriend. They
just happened to be there. He had gotten out, but went back in for her. They
both
perished
in the fire. So we had some strong ties to it. I called Jeff [Keith] and
told him what was going on, and that they really needed some help. I asked
him how he felt about doing a concert because they had the second anniversary
coming up on February 20th. He said, absolutely. I called everyone else in
the band, and they had the same reaction. That’s how this whole thing
really started. I called Todd back and said Tesla’s coming to do a
show. I just started calling other bands, and now we have our first concert.
This is going to be an annual thing that I’m going to be doing.
RIL: It’s going to be an annual thing?
TL: It’s not going to be just one concert. It may be for Tesla maybe,
unless they commit to more, but it won’t be for me. My wife and I run
the Wake Up to Love Foundation. We just started to get it going, and we’re
both committed to doing things like this. We’ve decided to adopt The
Station Family Fund as part of our life-long project because of the lack
of support they receive. I have a lot of friends and people that can donate.
We’re going to have an auction site. We really just getting started
with this, but next year I’d really like to have an event at The Dunkin
Donuts Center [Providence, MA].
RIL: That would be nice.
TL: Yeah, but were still getting
started. 3300 seats with the line-up we have, I thankful for that. I’m very thankful for Shinedown and Carmine
Appice with Vanilla Fudge and Pat Travers. It’s so nice to have them
because I put out a lot of stuff to a lot of people, without mentioning any
big names. With some of them I didn’t get the response I wanted, or
didn’t hear back at all. Maybe it didn’t get to them at all,
I don’t know. Maybe they’ll be available next year. I have some
high hopes to make a difference in that area. I love doing this, I love playing,
and anything I can do to help out and give back is not enough. That’s
just the way it is. When you get a little older you realize that stuff. When
you’re in your twenties you’re just chasing a dream.
RIL: Are you disappointed that none of the Boston or New England
based bands haven’t done anything like this?
TL: I have contacted
people from that area. We haven’t spoken, but
I sent some letters directly to them. Not hearing back from them is a disappointment,
if they received the letters. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe they didn’t get it. I’ll be doing some follow-ups this
week. I understand the whole political situation involved. I mean just the
politics of trying to put together a show like this is just stupid. That’s
a huge disappointment. You know, fuck all the politics! I’m not going
to play that game for too long. I’ll play a little bit of it for now.
Todd, myself, my wife, The Station Family Fund, Wake Up to Love Foundation,
and all of our supporters are going to work together throughout the year.
This [concert] is just something that’s going to take place in February
that’s going to raise awareness. You’re going to see us get really
involved throughout the year with contributions and concerts in different
areas. I have a lot of friends that are big promoters in Chicago and here
in Phoenix. I plan on doing some things. There’s going to be some people
involved, and there’s going to be some heavy hitters to help with this.
We’re going to do as much as we can with Tsunami relief as well. It
was such a sad, horrible tragedy. With life, you really don’t know
what’s what anymore. If there was federal and state money involved
with the Station Nightclub survivors, it probably still wouldn’t be
enough. The concert in February is going to be enough either. It’s
just going to be a band-aid for a few months or whatever. That’s just
the beginning. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m hoping that
those bands from Boston will help.
RIL: Maybe you will set the standard that will make those bands step up
to the plate.
TL: I’m just hoping that we can all pull together. I don’t want
to make anybody look bad for whatever reason they might have to not do anything.
Maybe it was a timing thing, or they were on tour, or whatever. I truly believe
that everybody in their heart wants to help. Sometimes there’s so many
politics with management and book agents and the like. I contacted these
people and said were providing a hotel room and a flight, that’s it.
You come if you want to come. If you can’t, we understand. That’s
how it’s going to continue to work. I’m really happy to be a
part of it. I feel like I’m the winner here. I’m not trying to
go out and be Mr. Hero here. If I could do this in a way that nobody knew,
I would. I don’t want the press, but I think I need to do this to raise
help and awareness. I just hope we can turn this into a successful thing
where everybody could get involved and everybody could help.
RIL: Are there plans to add more bands to the show?
TL:
I thought about it. It depends on the act. The Providence Performing Arts
Center had some issues about louder bands and stuff like that. I don’t
know exactly what their guidelines are there. Even with Tesla coming, Scott
Laudini the program director at 94 HJY was called by the PPAC and asked
about Tesla. He convinced them that we were good and they would have a problem
with us. Scott and WHJY are big supporters in all of this. We’ll probably
continue doing this at the PPAC for a year or so, but maybe we’ll move
it a around. We could end up in Boston or something; I don’t know what’s
going to happen.
RIL: Is Tesla planning an acoustic set for the benefit?
TL: We will be performing acoustically.
RIL: The Station Family Fund Benefit concert falls in line with
Tesla’s
Five Man Acoustical Jam 15th Anniversary Tour. Can you believe it’s
been 15 years?
TL: So I hear. Man it’s been a long time, hasn’t
it?
RIL: Has the band been kicking around this Anniversary Tour idea for a while,
or was it something that your fans have asking about?
TL: Not really.
We just got off tour and thought that it would be nice to just keep working
to keep the band out there for a little bit. We’ve
never toured acoustically. We’ve done a few selected shows, but that’s
it. Our manager mentioned that it was out 15th year and maybe we should do
something special. That’s how that all came about.
RIL: You have a lot of fan-friendly events involved with this tour, one
of them being that your fans get to help pick the set list.
TL: Yeah,
we’re trying to get people involved, so we want to hear
from our fans. This whole thing is about our fans. It really is. We’ve
been so fortunate in a world of music that’s changed so much over the
years. We wouldn’t be able to go out and tour if it weren’t for
our fan’s support. We know that. I’d like to make it ‘An
Evening with Tesla’ depending on the club or bar we’re at. The
band would like to play for two hours or longer, and not have an opening
act. There might be certain places that say we have to have one, because
they want us to go on later or whatever the case may be.
RIL: I don’t think you’ll have a problem with Boston. They’ll
want you out by 10pm to get the dance clubs going. Who came up with the ideas
for the radio contests that are tied into the tour? One of the contests is
for a chance to sit on stage for the entire set, and the other is a chance
to play a song on stage with Tesla.
TL: We came up with the ideas
with our manager Sterling Bacon. He’s
been coming up with a lot of these ideas and running them by us.
RIL: Is Tesla going to work on new material after the tour?
TL:
We’re already working on a covers record right now, and you might
find a bunch of that in the set. I hope I’m not pissing off the fans,
but I’m getting tired of playing the same songs all of the time. I’d
like to go out and do a lot of different things, but you have to please your
audience as well. Tesla would like to do a lot of different things too, but
I think we want to find a happy-medium on this tour. We’ll probably
add a few of the cover songs. We’ve got maybe twenty songs already.
RIL: What kind of bands or what era of music influences you guys?
TL:
There’s everything from Marilyn Manson to Bob Dylan to Climax
Blues Band. It's all in there.
For more information:
www.stationfamilyfund.org
www.wakeuptolove.com
www.ppacri.org
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TROY
LUCCKETTA
