Joe Walsh held a charity concert last week to benefit veterans
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Joe Walsh is not only a longtime musician, but also a Grammy award-winner. Apart from that Walsh is an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is a well-known guitarist for the Eagle bands. What many don’t know is that he is also a Gold Star son.

Robert Newton Fidler, Walsh’s dad was a flight instructor and died in Okinawa, Japan. This happened when the now 69 year old star was just 20 months old. Walsh has decided to start an initiative that will help veterans, their families and other family members of service members who have passed away in battle.

Last Wednesday Walsh played a concert at the Eagle Bank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia. All the proceedings that were got from the concert went to 18 organizations, which help veterans and military families. He named the initiative as the “VetsAid” and has plans of making such concerts become an annual thing.  The initiative was borrowed from the Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid concert series, which benefits family farms.

Some of the big names that joined the concert that took place last Wednesday, were Urban, Zac Brown Band and Gary Clark Jr. Walsh has struggled a great deal coming up with a great line up for the concert. This was according to a report that was released by his publicist

VetsAid, the nonprofit initiative, was started for the sole intention of distributing funds from the concert, this was an announcement that was made by the first round of recipients in July. The first recipients were: Operation Mend, Hire Heroes USA, Warrior Canine Connection, TAPS, Semper Fi Fund, Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, Stop Soldier Suicide and Swords to Plowshares.

VetsAid had previously named other smaller organizations that were going to be recipients. The named smaller organizations were: Snowball Express, North Carolina-based Equinox Ranch, Arizona-based Right Turn for Yuma Vets, Illinois-based Code Platoon, Connecticut-based Work Vessels for Vets., Inc., Delaware- and Texas-based Suiting Warriors, Arkansas Run for the Fallen and Virginia-based Semper K9 Assistance Dogs, Project Horse, Inc., and Center for American Military Music Opportunities.

Walsh has decided to concentrate more on the small, state- or community-oriented organizations.

In the past Walsh has participated in other veterans causes in the past. Taking part in charity events and at one time he even offered free guitar lessons to wounded service members at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.