KISS, STEVEN TYLER, MATT SORUM Featured In 'Adopt The Arts' PSA

May 5, 2012

KISS, AEROSMITH's Steven Tyler and former GUNS N' ROSES drummer Matt Sorum are featured in a new public-service announcement for Adopt The Arts, a charity dedicated to preserving the arts in schools and founded by Sorum. You can watch the four-minute PSA below.

On March 18, Adopt The Arts hosted a kick-off event hosted by "Glee"'s Jane Lynch at the Sofitel hotel in West Hollywood. Celebrities such as John Stamos, Mark McGrath, Johnathon Schaech, Adrian Young (NO DOUBT),music legend Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH),Gilby Clarke (GUNS N' ROSES),Billy Duffy (THE CULT),Christina Perri and many others came to support the cause. THE MAGNIFICENT 7 (Sorum, Donovan Leitch, Steve Stevens and Billy Morrison from Billy Idol's band, bassist Grant Fitzpatrick and Franky Perez) were joined by John Stamos playing drums and bongos, Glenn Hughes, whose performance brought the roof down, and Mark McGrath, who always brings it, treated everybody to an amazing, top-notch musical show.

Sorum spoke at the February 14 Los Angeles Unified School District board meeting where the board debated a $557 million budget cut to close a funding deficit in the district's $6 billion budget. He told the board that music helped keep him in school because he was not good at academics. He also said that cutting arts would be a travesty, explaining, "My mother is a music teacher and I grew up with music. I've gotta say — I wasn't the greatest with academics. I gravitated towards the creative aspect, which I had at public school. I had choir, [where] I learned how to sing, and I also took orchestra and learned how to play the drums, I became a world-renowned rock and roll musician."

He added, "I'm really concerned with cutting the arts and music for a very scientific reason, and the scientific reason is that kids learn four times better with music and arts in the program. Without a creative outlet, the academic programs are gonna suffer, and then there's gonna be children that don't gravitate towards the academics that have a creative mind that we're gonna lose nurturing them and may possibly be losing a very creative force in the future."

The drummer's speech apparently convinced the LAUSD board to hold off on a $6 billion budget plan that would result in eliminating the district's adult education, preschool and most elementary arts programs.

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