The tenth edition of Love Rocks NYC, an annual star-studded show that benefits God’s Love We Deliver, raised roughly $6 million for the organization that has brought no-cost medically tailored meals to New Yorkers for over four decades. Held at the Beacon Theater on March 5, the event featured performances by cultural icons including Nile Rodgers, Whoopi Goldberg, Mavis Staples, and Paul Simon, who all appeared fiercely passionate about the healing power of food and music.
Johnny Knollwood photos
Since 1985, God’s Love We Deliver has provided medically tailored meals to those living with illness in New York City. The meals, tailored by a registered dietician nutritionist, are tasty, healthy, easy to heat/re-heat, and are provided for free to patients whose illness may prevent them from cooking or accessing food. According to their website, the company serves over four million meals to 15,000 people annually, including populations living with cardiovascular disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, severe diabetes, and more. Research has shown that providing medically tailored meals reduces health care costs and lowers the rate of inpatient readmission to hospitals and programs. The sold-out benefit show, which celebrated a decade of performances and has raised over $65 million total, featured a host of stars who appeared in support of the organization. Seeing some of the country’s most prominent cultural icons spanning a wide spectrum of work onstage together was borderline surreal. Bill Murray and Jon Batiste led the Preservation Hall Brass Band in a procession to the stage, opening the show with a performance alongside New Orleans staples Ivan Neville and Trombone Shorty. Whoopi Goldberg and JB Smoove offered testimony in between performances by Paul Simon, who left audiences in a near-speechless stupor, and Linda Perry, who delivered a rendition of her signature 4 Non Blondes hit “What’s Up?”
Unannounced guests, including the legendary Mavis Staples, 86, joined guitarist Warren Haynes, Elvis Costello and Irish indie darling Hozier for a rendition of The Band’s “The Weight,” ahead of a performance by Hozier and guitar icon Nile Rodgers.
The gravity of the collaborations and songs like “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?,” “A Change is Gonna Come,” and the closing “With a Little Help From my Friends,” was not lost on the audience, who donated to the organization via text prompted by messages on screens throughout the night. “Ten years of Love Rocks New York, ten years of artists showing up,” Whoopi Goldberg said to the audience, celebrating the milestone for the organization. “Ten years of this room proving that music can move more than a crowd, it can move a mission.”
Learn more about God’s Love We Deliver programs, apply for medically tailored meals, and donate at gldw.org.