By Tim Saunders on
Rockers Pearl Jam have raised $3 million for charity after a gig in New York City on Monday night.
The band played an impressive 26-song set during a private show at the Big Apple’s 2,800-capacity Beacon Theater and raised the cash for the Robin Hood Foundation's poverty fighting initiatives, bringing the Seattle-based band’s current tour to a successful and charitable close.
The show – to which some fans forked out $2,250 for a ticket – followed the band’s announcement last week that they are to back a campaign to raise money for patients fighting health insurance companies for payouts. A pre-concert fundraising party was held before the band’s concert in Connecticut on Friday, organized by Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness leader Jennifer Jaff.
The band were made aware of the plight of patients by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, who has battled Crohn’s disease – a bowel disorder – for the last 25 years.
“Jennifer Jaff is one of the best advocates for patients I have ever seen,” said McCready. “It’s super-important for her to fight against the insurance companies that will deny people any kind of coverage for their pre-existing conditions. The work she does is justified, and I just love it. We live in the greatest country in the world, and I have lived here my entire life, but we need to invest our money back into things that look at a broader scope, not just things that are going to make us money. If people are going to die because some legislation didn’t go through, that, to me, is abhorrent. That’s not what America means to me.”
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
