Music legend and humanitarian Steven Tyler celebrates his third annual GRAMMY Awards Viewing Party to benefit Janie’s Fund!
Janie’s Fund created by Steven Tyler in association with Youth Villages
On Sunday, January 26th, Aerosmith lead singer and humanitarian Steven Tyler held his third annual GRAMMY Award Viewing Party to benefit Janie’s Fund at Raleigh Studios Hollywood. Hosted by Terry Crews, along with 500 friends and supporters, the gala featured a live viewing of the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, three-course dinner by Crumble Catering, and a Performance by Gavin DeGraw!
Janie’s Fund, inspired by the hit Aerosmith song “Janie’s Got a Gun”, is a non-profit organization started by Steven Tyler in partnership with Youth Villages to provide support to girls who have suffered from abuse and neglect. Since its inception in November of 20115, Janie’s Fund has built a community of over 70,000 supporters who have collectively donated more than $7.5 million which helped provide over 167,000 days of counseling and trauma-informed care to more than 1,200 girls, including supporting 30 girls that receive daily therapeutic services at the Janie’s Houses in Memphis, TN and Douglasville, GA. This year’s third annual event raised more than $2.4 million alone! “I’ve been given the gift of a big mouth and if I can pass it along to people understanding that these girls have a problem; not just here in America, all around the world. 100,000 girls a year in America alone. It’s god awful, but we have an answer,” said Steven Tyler, “We have something we can do about it when they come in asking for help. It’s a place for them to go, and if it was just one, we’ve done something and we’re doing more and more every year and it’s just been great. I’m really proud to be apart of it because it makes my heart feel good!”
Many celebrities are Cho-chair supporters Janie’s Fund and the event including Lady Gaga, Alice Cooper, Sharon Stone, Andrea Bocelli, Britney Spears, Ashlee Simpson & Evan Ross, Caitlyn Jenner, Hilary Roberts, John Stamos, Mario Lopez, Julianne Hough & Brooks Laich, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Michael Rapino, Kayte & Kelsey Grammer, Sydney Sweeney, Rod Stewart, Jane Lynch, and Bill Maher. Other sponsors of the event include Live Nation, Hilton, and MGM Resorts.
Several VIP guests were in attendance that night including Abbie Cornish, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kelsey Grammer, Lola Lennox, Jason Lewis, Justine Lupe, Teddi Mellencamp, Haley Reinhart, Hilary Roberts, Stassi Schroeder and Beau Clark, Sydney Sweeney, The Struts, Maria Conchita Alonso, Juanita Arias, Nuno Bettencourt, Rosa Blasi, Camila Coelho, Kristin Dattilo, Drew Dolan, Jessica Hart, Manuela Frey, Jazmin Grimaldi & Ian Mellencamp, Nikki Lund, Brittney Palmer, Braeden Wright and more!
The gala started with a speech from the host Terry Crews, who started off by paying tribute to the LA Lakers icon Kobe Bryant who tragically passed away along with his daughter GiGi and 7 others that morning. “I want to respectfully acknowledge the tragic events that happened here this morning with Kobe Bryant and his family, and the others that suffered that horrific, horrific helicopter accident. I’m in mourning. I’m sure everyone here feels the pain. I’m a father, I have daughters, and I can only imagine the pain the families are going through right now” said Terry Crews during his speech. We also got a chance to speak with Terry about his support of the foundation. “Our thing is to put a 3-D face on what was seen as a 2-D issue. The problem is people say ‘Oh that’s women’s stuff’, but unless men get involved; unless men are actively involved in these kinds of issues nothing will change. This is something that Steven has seen, this is something that I have realized, and if we put our name and our face and our time behind this, all of a sudden see this like ‘wait a minute, this is for everybody. This is a humanity issue, not a women’s issue.’”
The gala featured entertainment acts by Master Mentalist Lior Suchard and the Youth Villages African Drumming Group which included girls supported by Janie’s Fund in the act. Following that was a speech by the Keynote speaker Jennifer Rhodes who shared her own story of abuse and how Youth Villages and Janie’s Fund helped her. “I’m incredibly excited to be here. It’s really awesome when you have a world-renowned Rockstar taking notice to girls who’ve truly been forgotten about and disregarded as important. Girls who sometimes lead lives and go down tunnels that are really dark and no one’s caring and showing up for them. It’s really amazing to be able to come and share my story, talk about what I went through in life and where I could be right now but thankfully am not at all because of supportive programs like Janie’s Fund and Youth Villages” said Jennifer during a personal interview. Kristin Dattilo, the actress who played ‘Janie’ in the “Janie’s Got a Gun” music video also spoke about being a part of the music video and impact it had on giving a voice to the girls suffering from abuse. We also got a chance to speak to singer Hillary Roberts about her support of Janie’s Fund. “I am so excited. The dark things I went through when I learned about Janie’s Fund and what they’d did to help girls who have been through abuse like what I had been through, I knew I had to get behind it,” said Roberts, “I am the founder of the Red Songbird foundation and so we started supporting Janie’s Fund last year and absolutely love what Steven’s doing. Being a recording artist and looking at a man be a safe vessel for women that may have never known that, kind of like I didn’t until later on. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.”
Then, after returning from performing with Aerosmith and Run DMC at the GRAMMY Awards, Steven Tyler kicked off the live auction conducted by Alexander Gilkes. The auction featured many exclusive and high-value items, artwork, and experiences such as artwork by Mr. Brainwash, Unapologetic, Emmanuelle Rybojad, and Brittany Palmer, a Steven Tyler portrait by Christopher Makos, an elephant sculpture by Hacer, a Punk Buddha sculpture by Metis Atash, a John Lennon photograph by Bob Gruen, Steven Tyler’s own Dirico Pro Street Roadster, a European VIP Aerosmith experience, a lunch and boat ride with entrepreneur and philanthropist John Paul DeJoria, a five-night stay at G Clef Ranch in Somers, Montana, and more.
The night was capped off with a surprise performance by Gavin DeGraw who performed several of his hit songs including “Chariot”, “In Love with a Girl”, and “I Don’t Want to Be”. Afterward, Rossdale performed featuring Nuno Bettencourt on bass and Luke Spiller of The Struts, capping off a fantastic gala supporting a great cause.
Tammy Bender contributing reporting.
