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David Crosby and Joe Walsh to headline benefit concert commemorating the Kent State shootings

Marking the massacre’s 50th anniversary.

David Crosby and Joe Walsh

Images: Scott Dudelson / Kevin Kane / Getty

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David Crosby and Eagles’ Joe Walsh have been announced as the headline performers at a benefit concert at Kent State University, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Kent State Shootings. The performance will take place on 2 May at the university’s Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center.

The concert remembers the events of 4 May, 1970, when 28 National Guard soldiers fired into a student protest against the extension of the Vietnam War. Four were killed, and nine were wounded.

Proceeds from the event will go toward the May 4 Legacy Scholarships, which will give four scholarships to students majoring in the Peace and Conflict Studies program. The scholarships are named after the four students killed in the shootings – Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder.

Rod Flauhaus, one of the event’s organisers, said about the event: “We wanted to make sure the artists we brought in for the concert had a strong understanding of the history of 4 May, 1970, and a commitment to helping raise funds for the scholarships. Artists like Joe Walsh and David Crosby provided the soundtrack for both those that went to fight in the Vietnam War and for those who were against it. Their music was the common thread that helped to raise national awareness, inspire activism, and helped us to heal as a nation.”

At the time, Joe Walsh was attending Kent State as an English major and music minor. He spoke to the San Diego Tribune in 2012 about his experience “After that, I didn’t look at college the same,” he told the San Diego Tribune. “Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don’t need a degree that bad.”

Walsh is currently on tour with the Eagles, playing their classic album Hotel California in its entirety. Meanwhile, Crosby, who notably performed on the Crosby, Stills Nash and Young track Ohio (written by Young in response to the massacre) is preparing for a May solo tour, beginning on 14 May in Santa Barbara, California. He is also working on a follow-up to his 2018 record Here If You Listen.

Tickets for the event go on sale Friday 6 March at 10 AM. For more music news, click here.

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