Kids Rock Free has announced legendary musical icon, the Steve Miller Band, recently raised over $500,000 from individuals, local and national business, performing artists, music industry executives, and community leaders in support of music education at a sold-out benefit concert at The Fender Center in Corona, CA. All proceeds from the event went to benefit the non-profit Kids Rock Free music education program, to reduce the 800 kids on the program’s waiting list into classes at The Fender Center. With…

In the late ’70s, 14-year-old Griffin Black wasn’t even born yet. But “Refugee,” the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 1979 tune, is his favorite song. In fact, while most his friends would rather listen to hip-hop, the Heartbreakers are his favorite band. So it’s not uncommon for Black to watch old Tom Petty videos on YouTube. One night in front of the computer, Griffin was watching footage of a 1985 concert. “And Mike Campbell, the lead guitar player from Tom…

From the Olean Times Herald: SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) — If music fans who attended Friday night’s Molly Hatchet band concert enjoyed the smooth playing of guitarist Bobby Ingram, they’ve got a Sheridan-Wyo-Rodeo volunteer to thank. After a unique guitar normally played by Ingram was lost by an airline en route to Billings, SPURS volunteer Joe Campbell offered up his own guitar for Ingram to play at the show. Ingram performed the concert using Campbell’s Gibson Les Paul guitar for all…

Fans of Nashville Superspeedway will have the opportunity to get their hands on another special, commemorative Sam Bass-designed Gibson Les Paul trophy guitar following the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, by placing their bid in a NASCAR Foundation online auction following the race. The guitar, a Nashville Superspeedway-themed custom Gibson Les Paul designed by NASCAR artist Sam Bass, will be autographed by Bass, Grammy-nominated Warner Bros. recording artist John Rich, and the winning driver of the Federated Auto Parts 300….

Jeff Beck completed his latest album Emotion & Commotion with just three fingers on his left hand – after he sliced through one in a kitchen accident. The guitar great cut off a fingertip in the incident and had to tightly tape the damaged digit to another to allow the tip to reconnect with his finger. He tells Gibson.com, “I had to finish up the album, I had to play two or three tracks without that finger. Over the Rainbow…

He is a long-haired rocker who plays a mean riff and cites Led Zeppelin among his influences — and now he has been unveiled as the UK government’s latest weapon in the fight against Al-Qaeda. Salman Ahmad, a Pakistani musician whose band has sold more than 30m albums, is to urge Muslim students to choose an electric guitar over extremism. The self-proclaimed “rock’n’roll jihadist” will this week take his message to students at Oxford University, Imperial College and the London…

Gibson Guitar and its philanthropic division, the Gibson Foundation, have announced a series of programs to help aid the victims of the recent Nashville floods that devastated the city and surrounding areas. Thousands of people have been left homeless and without the basic necessities of everyday life. The Gibson Foundation, based in Nashville, will spearhead an initiative working with landmark venues and businesses throughout the city including the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau Visitors Center, Gibson Café, and Diana’s Sweet…

There are a lot of fake vintage guitars in the market, but if you want to be certain of getting a real one, log on to the Roots of Rock Collection (rootsofrock.com) before it sells out. The collection, which originally consisted of more than 300 mint-state vintage guitars and amplifiers, appraised at US$4-million to US$4.5-million, belonged to Tony Melman, a former managing director at Onex Corp. and now chairman and CEO of Nevele Partners Inc. in Toronto. Mr. Melman donated…

It’s a story that encapsulates both everything wrong, and everything right with the world. First the report from The Chicago Tribune; “Some 40 feet below Dearborn Street, somewhere near Washington Street, Juan Hernandez had just finished his day’s work along the Blue Line platform, the stage where he picks, strums and sings for commuters. Hernandez, who is legally blind, began to pack up as he always does — by touch. He put his guitar in its case and rested it…

On Friday, April 23, from 5:30 to 9:30 PM, Guitars For Vets will be hosting an event at The Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee to raise awareness and funds for their national expansion. You can find more detail at http://www.harley-davidson.com/. Patrick Nettesheim says, “I co-founded G4V with Dan Van Buskirk, a Viet Nam era Veteran, with the intention of bringing relief and healing to Vets suffering from PTSD, physical injuries and other traumas. It was almost two years ago to the…