Counting Crows 'Remind People They Exist' Through Charity

Posted on Aug 14th 2009 3:00PM by Linda Laban
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Fancy a round of golf with Counting Crows guitarist David Bryson or a drum lesson with sticksman Jim Bogios? Or what about owning frontman Adam Duritz's handwritten lyrics? Perhaps you'd simply like to hang out backstage with the band before a show? Then head to CharityFolks.com, where the bidding is on for such prizes as well as tickets to the Crows "Traveling Circus and Medicine Show" summer tour.

Money from the charity auction goes to Counting Crows' GreyBird Foundation, which aids grassroots abuse, HIV/AIDS and environmental groups, many of them local to the cities the band plays in. "The basic idea of the organization is to get people involved with the idea of being involved," Duritz tells Spinner.

The singer says he's never been interested in organizing an enormous Live Aid type effort. "Organizations to help others have become popular, massive televised events," he says. "A big concert gives you chance to donate money. I think that's very good -- these things need money -- but I figure there are already people who are very good at that. My interest was always the core problem: people feeling like they have no power. Why take part? Why get involved? So, we looked at issues that were important to us. We'd find something in every town and bring them out to the gig and set them up on the concourse."

Duritz calls it low impact philanthropy and though he speaks passionately and at great length about GreyBird, he doesn't allow politics to color the alliances. "I am completely non-partisan. I will not work with anyone who is part of a political organization. I don't want to be misunderstood: I don't give a f--- who you vote for. The main thing I'm trying to do is remind people they exist."