Matt Sorum, drummer with a resume that includes Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, The Cult and more, started a group called Kings of Chaos. The line up of the band depends on the availability of Matt’s many well known and talented musician friends. On February 27, 2025, Matt got one of his best Kings of Chaos line ups ever together for “Rock For Responders.” A show to say thank you to the first responders that fought the recent LA fires.
The show included performances by Sammy Hagar, Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon fame, Glenn Hughes, Steve Stevens, Orianthi, Phil X of Bon Jovi, Thomas Raggi of Maneskin and the last guest added just days before the show, former Bon Jovi guitarist and song writer Richie Sambora. All these artists donated their time to the show and came out and did a show of nothing but hits. Matt Sorum lead the show and played drums for every song. The band was rounded out by keyboardist Paul Trudeau from Billy Idol’s band, bassist Carmine Rojas who played with David Bowie and Rod Stewart and Robin Taylor Zander. Also on hand were actors Ron Perlman, Steve Guttenberg and ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman.
I was lucky enough to be on hand for the sound check. One of the things that was cool to see for that was a group of young school children, The Changels. Matt has a charity, Adopt the Arts. These kids are a part of that. It was obvious as they said hello to Matt and how he reacted to them, Matt knows these kids and truly cares about helping them. The kids also got their time in the spotlight to be part of the show. It was wild to see this show taking shape at The Pacific Battleship Center right on front of the Battleship Iowa.
Just before the show I had a chance to get on Battleship Iowa to see the entire group of musicians and celebrities together. That also gave me the chance to speak with a few of the artists. We snapped some pics up there as well. Some of those pictures are on this page. You’ll recognize them as being on the ship.
The music actually kicked off in a very cool way. Steve Stevens, who recorded the grammy winning “Top Gun Theme”, played the song live on stage while a fly over happened in the sky above. Something tells me that is a once in a lifetime event. Matt had told me in advance that Orianthi wanted to do some Hendrix. She and I spoke about that briefly before she headed to the stage. She hit doing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” following up with Jimi Hendrix’ “Voodoo Child.”
From there the show was off to the races. Glenn Hughes hit the stage and slayed the audience with Deep Purple’s “Highway Star.” To say Glenn’s vocals were amazing would be a vast understatement. Robin Zander was next up with classic Cheap Trick tunes and a fiery version of The Beatles “Helter Skelter.” Kevin Cronin, former REO Speedwagon singer, was not to be outdone as he brought a couple of hs most rocking songs to life in front of the Battleship, “Roll with The Changes” and “Riding The Storm Out.”
Then it was time for Sammy Hagar to play. During Sammy’s set he and Matt did a little talking, a little joking and a lot of rocking!!! Matt had told me a couple weeks before the show, that Sammy was the first person to agree to do the show, and he said yes right away. At one point Sammy clearly wanted to sing Matt’s praises for putting the show together. I think it was Matt’s humility that made him cut Sammy off by counting in the next song. Sammy did a cool set that included both Van Hagar songs and tunes of his solo like “There’s Only One Way To Rock” and “I Can’t Drive 55.” Sammy also sang Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll’ along with help from Kevin Cronin and guitar work from Thomas Raggi of Maneskin.
Next up was the artist who I believe was the last person to sign on to the show, Richie Sambora. Richie of course the former guitarist and part of the song writing team for Bon Jovi. Richie broke out the band’s monster hit “Livin’ On A Prayer.” One of the players who had been on stage most of the night was Phil X. Phil is the front man for his own band, Phil and The Drills, plus he is the current guitarist for Bon Jovi. I immediately wondered when I heard that Richie had signed on to the show, if he and Phil might jam together. It was cool to see Richie former Bon Jovi guitarist who co wrote “Livin’ On A Parayer” play it with the band’s current guitarist Phil X. Orianthi also joined them to add to the guitar fire power on the track. You can watch my cell phone video of the song below.
There are two people I really have to give a shout out to surrounding this show. Matt Sorum and his co-executive director for Adopt the Arts, Laurie Baker. This show wouldn’t have happened without either of them. Matt told me weeks before the show, “We just felt that we needed to do something for the first responders.” He called all his rock star friends and got them to donate their time and be there. I watched as Matt played through so many songs at the sound check and the show. Drumming is physical and Matt essentially played the show twice that day. Plus he was talking to so many people about what they were doing. While Matt was running the entire show on stage, Laurie Baker seemed to be running it off stage. I’m sure if we looked at any kind of step meter on Laurie for the day, we’d collapse just thinking about it. Thank you to Matt and Laurie for a truly kick ass Rock show for such a worthy cause!!!
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