In Nashville later this month, a rare supergroup will come together featuring singers from six legendary bands. The special show will take place at the annual fundraiser for cancer research hosted by retired figure skater Scott Hamilton.
Performing together for the first time will be Chicago’s Jason Scheff, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Wally Palmar of the Romantics, Loverboy’s Mike Reno, Journey’s Jason Derlatka, and former Kansas singer John Elefante. Reno’s wife, Catherine St Germain, will also appear on stage. The show will take place at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on November 23rd.
“It’s going to be a big old rock and roll show,” Hamilton told People. “So many of these guys are my heroes. Back in the day, I would’ve killed to get a backstage pass to see or meet or to be in the same proximity as these guys, and now I’m producing them in my show. It’s like, are you kidding me?”
The event will also pay homage to Hamilton’s own successful career as a figure skater and feature legends like Nathan Chen, Maxin Naumov, Gracie Gold, and Keegan Messing skating to the classic hits while the singers perform.
“We bring together skaters and musicians to put together a night of entertainment that not to be believed,” he promised. “We turn Bridgestone Arena in Nashville into a theater — we take out the glass, we bring the seats all the way down to the ice, so there are two rows of seats on the ice. It’s so intimate. There are no barriers. There’s nothing that’s going to prevent them from seeing and feeling the skater right in front of them.”
The Scott Hamilton and Friends event will raise money for cancer research centers. Hamilton himself is a cancer survivor who founded CARES and the foundation, The 4th Angel, which pairs newly diagnosed patients with survivors.
“Everything I’ve learned, everything I’ve seen, everything I’ve witnessed, everything that I believe to be true says that there’ll be a time, probably in my lifetime — and I’m 67, so it’s not like I’ve got decades and decades left — is that there will be a day where no one dies of cancer.”
