Rock and Roll is in Rob Sherriff’s heart and what it can do for people is on his mind. Rob’s current project is the upcoming 3rd Annual Rockers Against Cancer Benefit Show. Headliners Sweet and the Gary McGrath Project will be joined for this great evening of rock, also featuring Le Reverie, Ronny North, Highway Ryders, Prey on the Fallen, Voodoo Sex Cult, White Lie, Not Liable, and Dirty Eyes. The show hosted by 95.5 KLOS’s Derek Madden, and focusses on raising awareness and money to fight cancer. There will be door prizes including some special give-aways and even a raffle for a gorgeous acoustic guitar from Armandao Vega and Yamaha Guitars.
“My brother was diagnosed in October 2011 and he passed away almost to the day, on January 9, 2012”, Rob said. “He had multiple myeloma cancer, which is a blood and bone cancer. It’s one of the worst cancers you can get, because of the way it starts hacking at the bones. We tried to do what we could, but finally had to give up; there wasn’t much hope with that. My brother was only 57 years old. I’m a hard rock metalhead pretty much, so one of my favorite bands would be Iron Maiden. I grew up really liking KISS, in fact my brother Larry bought me for my 11th birthday the album ‘KISS Alive’. Larry’s gift started the whole rock and roll thing for the most part for me.”
Rob, as the show’s promoter, is no stranger to the music business. “I grew up in the music business. I was a roadie, as every young kid in it was and became a manager working for bands in the ’80s and ’90s. I took a little break from the business for a while and then I started working for a record company in the late ’90s called Discovery Records. I had the privilege of working with Jac Holzman. Jac is the founder and head of Elektra Records and I had the pleasure of helping him to write his book on Elektra and the music business. In 2008, one of my passions was to be a concert promoter, so that year I opened my company called Hollywood Sheriff Productions and the rest is history. I’ve put on a lot of big shows, quality shows where people have a good time and they try to brink rock ‘n’ roll back”.
This is definitely a special show for Rob. “The show is Saturday, October 18th in Santa Ana, CA at a place called Malone’s. It’s put on by Rockers Against Cancer, the first one was the Rockers Against Cancer Benefit Show, the second one the 2nd Rockers Against Cancer Benefit Show and this one will be the 3rd Annual Rockers Against Cancer Benefit Show but I also wanted something a little easier to remember so now it’s also Rockers Against Cancer 3. We want to let people know that this is an annual event that we’re doing. With the show coming up, my partner/presenter is 95.5 KLOS’ DJ/Program Director Derek Madden”.
Rob has pulled in a few great headliners for the show. “This year’s musical guest is the band Sweet, known for their great hits such as ‘Ballroom Blitz’, ‘Love is Like Oxygen’ and “Fox on the Run’ and we will also have another band called the Gary McGrath Project, featuring people like Chet McCracken, the drummer for the Doobie Brothers, Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis of Guns ‘N’ Roses, and some other special people, possibly the guitarist for the Vanilla Fudge, a couple players that play with Chicago and some other well-known musicians. We have a good show!”. Groups like Le Reverie, a band that fuses heavy metal-goth rock and even classical symphonic music is another of the groups on the list, showing how much variety Rob has drawn on to find music that every one will like.
Rob has dedicated the rockers Against Cancer Shows to his brother, Larry Sherriff and others who have lost the battle. “I’m working with Cancer Research Institute this year helping to raise money for them, they have a great program that finds ways to strengthen your immune system and help fight cancer, to fight whatever cancer you might have, so that seems to be going pretty good as well. In some way or some form, everybody’s been affected by cancer. It’s not too hard to find members of the bands who haven’t known someone affected by cancer. They all want to raise awareness and raise money to fight cancer as well”.
Rob summed it up by saying, “I look at it this way. I’m going to do this every year in honor of my brother, who passed away two years ago from his battle with cancer,there’s going to be as far as I’m concerned an annual show every year. I don’t know how soon we’ll be able to find a cure for cancer, there are some people out there who say they have cures ready to go, but obviously the government is concerned and especially the ultra-big, big-money pharmaceuticals who might make a lot of money off of a cancer cure, things of that nature, but I am still going to do ‘Rockers Against Cancer’ and a lot of other shows too”.
Rockers Against Cancer 3, the 3rd Annual Rockers Against Cancer Benefit Show, takesmplace at Malone’s Bar and Grill, 604 E. Dyer Road, Santa Ana 92705. Their phone is (714) 979-6000 and their website is www.malonesbarandgrill.com.Tickets are available through the event website, Rockers Against Cancer 3. A special Rockers Against Cancer 3 T-Shirt is available now and will be an awesome shirt to wear that night. Information is also available on Rockers Against Cancer’ 3’s Facebook Page.
As the Facebook Page says…….Rock all night…..kick cancer’s ass!
