"THIS IS ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF L.A.": IRVING AZOFF TALKS FIREAID

Over the course of his storied 50-plus-year career, Irving Azoff has been involved in many fundraising concerts. “Only about 100,” he tells HITS. “But hopefully this is the granddaddy of them all. Sure feels like it's shaping up to be.”

On 1/30, a mere 23 days after the Los Angeles wildfires broke out and began their devastating path of destruction, the Azoff family, Live Nation and AEG will present FireAid, a benefit concert featuring so many superstar acts—Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Green Day and Olivia Rodrigo among the 27, at last count—it needs to be held simultaneously at Intuit Dome and the Forum.

Tickets for both venues go on sale today (1/22 at) noon PT through Ticketmaster. One hundred percent of ticket purchases will benefit FireAid relief efforts, and all venue and ticketing service fees have been waived. Nearly every major streaming platform will air the show live.

With Azoff’s A-list connections, pit-bull persistence and abiding love for L.A., there’s no one else in the biz who could have pulled off such a Herculean feat.

The only blemish on his record? Talking to us.

How did this all come together?

As soon as we understood the magnitude of the problem, the family, kids, Shelli and I started talking about what we could do. Shelli said, we really need to do a show. Shelli and I spoke with Gillian Zucker, who's the president of business operations for the Clippers and is a close friend. I don't know if she called us or we called her, but we were commiserating. We kind of had the idea to do a show at the same time, and she said, of course you can have Intuit.

As the outpouring of volunteers to perform became clear, we expanded to the second building. We couldn't possibly have gotten everybody on and off the stage in one night at Intuit. And that's when we came up with the idea of adding the Forum as well. We picked the date. It had nothing to do with people being in town for Grammy week. We picked the date based on our belief that you have to strike while the iron is hot. Watching what went on with the hurricane relief in Carolina, it was big news for a short period of time. The week after the Grammys is Super Bowl week, and we didn't want to compete with that. And the following week the buildings didn't have availability. So it was either go right away on Jan. 30, or we weren't going to be able to get it done. We need the buildings for four days to move in and get the production set up. Jan. 30 became the only logical date, especially based on availability of some of the key artists.

What’s the reason you initially went with Intuit as opposed to the Forum?

Currently, the most significant portion of the money we're raising is from sponsors. We have suites at Intuit, and no suites at the Forum, so we’re able to generate massive corporate donations at Intuit.

Is there a figure you have in mind you think is feasible for the money raised?

North of $50m.

And how does that break down, ballpark?

None of your fucking business!

Who were your first calls, besides the people that you mentioned already?

We spoke to Don Henley and Cindy Frey. The Eagles were not playing in Vegas on that date, but a band member had an out of the country commitment they couldn't get out of. Next thing we know, they called us back and said, we're writing a $2.5m check to kick this off. So, that was a wonderful out-of-the-gate surprise. And then Jeffrey [Azoff] and I, and Geni Lincoln and Michael Rapino at Live Nation, just hit the phones. I think Rod Stewart was the first artist to confirm, and then it just exploded. The outpouring has been amazing. Rod’s flying himself and his band in from England. He lived here until recently, and his kids are here. His California roots are deep.

Were there any challenges doing it the same week as the Grammys?

I don't even know who's doing the Grammys. Did they announce it yet? It wasn't like, oh, everybody's in town for the Grammys, let’s do it then. We were leaning towards L.A. artists, who were either directly impacted or have friends that were directly impacted. It's kind of local. Jon Bon Jovi called and said, I'll be on the next plane. And I said, Jon, when New Jersey burns down, by all means. But for now, stay home.

How will the performances be staggered? If I’m at Intuit, can I watch the Forum sets, and vice versa?

The Forum show is going to start at 6pm, around 90 minutes before the Intuit show starts. Traffic-wise, on a Thursday afternoon, we can't start the shows at the same time. In Inglewood, there's SoFi, there's the Forum, there's Intuit. When two people run events the same day, you don't start at the same time, because otherwise the traffic is so bad it’s a bad fan experience.

So, you can come early to Intuit and watch the first 90 minutes of the Forum show on the video screens. Then your show starts. And then vice versa will happen at the Forum. So the Forum show will end an hour-and-a-half before the Intuit show ends. If you’re at The Forum, you can stay and watch the end of the Intuit show. There'll be a middle part where we're going to try and go back and forth.

Wow, that’s really tricky. The logistics are interesting.

They're not interesting at all. They're fucking terrifying. Look, we have no idea if people sitting at home are going to donate. We don't know if anybody outside of California gives a shit. So we needed the two live gates, and we didn't want to make it feel like a radio show, right? We couldn't book everybody who wanted to perform.

How many times did you politely have to say no to people?

I'm never polite. Rick Krim is our talent producer. We had some artists who wanted to perform, but it was more who got there first.

And Joel Gallen is producing the show for broadcast and streaming?

As of now, yes.

What's that mean?

He may have a nervous breakdown.

The number of streaming partners is very impressive.

We offered it to YouTube exclusively first, and they graciously said, you know what? This is important. We should be Switzerland here.

I assume there won’t be a house band for every act.

Two of the 13 acts at Intuit are using the house band. The other 11 are bringing their own stuff. We're managers, you know? If you want to bring your band, we’ll figure it out.

I’m curious why L.A. hip-hop kingpins Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre aren’t part of the show.

Kendrick's doing the Super Bowl the next week. You think CBS would have been happy if he went on another TV show 10 days before? We couldn't ask him. Dre hasn't walked on stage since the 2022 Super Bowl. You can't ask the man to perform on 12 days notice. So, we didn't ask him.

Lil Baby and Anderson .Paak are on the bill. Those are two fantastic acts. We'd hoped for a K-pop act, but there really wasn't a California-based act available.

How do you plan to provide tickets for first responders and people who lost their homes?

What is this, a hard news piece? I thought this was for HITS.

There's a substantial allotment of tickets for first responders, helicopter pilots and people who lost their houses. But remember, everybody can watch it at home. We don’t want to give away all the tickets, because then there's no money to help.

Have you reached out to the mayor about the shows?

No. This is a non-political event. This isn't, you know, Concert for New York, where the politicians got up and rallied people. This for the people. And, by the way, we don't really want it to be a big, somber moment. This is about the spirit of L.A. and how music heals. We don't want to do a tear-jerking Jerry Lewis telethon. We want people to give money for the joy of the music and the joy of the rebuild.