Last night (January 30), a huge number of pop and rock A-listers came together for FireAid, a benefit show that aimed to raise money for victims of the devastating fires that tore through the Los Angeles area earlier this month.
As is often the case at star-studded benefit concerts, there were a number of surprise guests, most notably the surviving members of Nirvana, who played a four-song set with St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett, and Dave Grohl’s daughter Violet, on vocals.
Unlike Nirvana, the Black Crowes were featured on the bill beforehand, but they had a surprise of their own.
For a rendition of Led Zeppelin’s folky classic, Going to Californiathe Crowes recruited none other than Slash.
Few prominent rock bands are better-equipped to tackle the Zeppelin catalog than the Black Crowes. After all, many a year ago, they played a number of full, Zeppelin-heavy shows with Jimmy Page himselfthe highlights of which were captured on the double live album, Live at the Greek.
Indeed, their take on the Zeppelin acoustic showcase is a beautiful one, with the Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist – armed with a Gibson acoustic that, interestingly, doesn’t appear to be his signature J-45 – and Rich Robinson, playing his Eastman 12-string, perfectly locking in with one another.
After thanking the city’s first responders, Crowes frontman Chris Robinson said by way of introduction, “We’re gonna play something we thought was appropriate for the evening.”
Just last year, Slash teamed up with Chris Robinson for a cover of the Steppenwolf-via-Hoyt Axton song, The Pusher. The song – which was made famous by the classic film, Easy Rider – served as the opening tune on Slash’s blues covers album, Orgy of the Damned.
“When I called him about it, he loved that song,” the top-hatted guitar hero told Guitar World last year. “It was cool that he was so passionate about it, and excited about coming in and doing it.”
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