Legendary rocker looks worlds away from Live Aid – 40 years after iconic concert
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ONE of the rockers at the forefront of the historic Live Aid concert looks completely different four decades on.
Eric Bazilian, 71, is a founding member of the US band, the Hooters and wrote Joan Osborne hit, One of Us.
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Eric Bazilian of The Hooters
Credit: Getty
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Eric and The Hooters opened the US leg of Live Aid in 1985
Credit: Getty
The rocker fronted the Philadelphia-born band during the 1985 US leg of Live Aid on July 13.
Live Aid was an unprecedented series of concerts that brought together some of the biggest musicians from around the world to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
The global event saw Madonna, U2, David Bowie, Elton John and Queen, among others, perform at simultaneous concerts at Wembley Stadium and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.
The Hooters opened the US Live Aid with their hits, And We Danced and All You Zombies.
Eric founded the band with Rob Hyman in 1980 and their second album, Nervous Night, catapulted them to fame and went platinum.
Outside of the band, Eric co-produced Joan Osborne's 1995 album, Relish, which would go on to be nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for One of Us.
Live Aid is gearing up to celebrate its 40th birthday this week, including with the release on Friday of Just For One Day, The Live Aid Musical album.
The 30-track collection of songs from the groundbreaking concert is recorded by the cast of the theatre show.
Live Aid was spearheaded by Boomtown Rats front man, Bob Geldof, and the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised more than £150million for people in need since its launch.
The musical opened at London's Shaftesbury Theatre on May 15 and ten percent of tickets sales are going to the charity.
Kevin Cronin and Speedwagon play Roll With The Changes at Band Aid
Band Aid was also responsible for the release of charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? which sold three million copies in the UK alone.
The single was inspired by a haunting 1984 BBC News report from Ethiopia, where famine had ravaged the country and led to 1.2million deaths between 1983 and 1985 alone.
Eric previously opened up on why it was special to be a home grown band opening Live Aid in Philadephia.
"I think we had a tremendous amount of Philly pride, we were able to say, 'Welcome to Philadelphia'," he told NBC10 Philadelphia in 2022.
"We were able to welcome the world. We were only able to play for 10 minutes, but that was 10 minutes that changed our history and rocked the world."
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