Can Music Help Solve America’s Biggest Problems?
I fell in love with music when I was 11 years old. I remember the moment I heard David Gilmour’s guitar solo from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” blast through the wall to my sister’s room. Now, 35 years later, music is a big part of my efforts to transform how we tackle America’s biggest problems.
After the music bug bit me, I became obsessed with live music and attended more concerts than I care to admit. But it wasn’t until college — when I made the trek to Phish’s Big Cypress concert — that I had my second big epiphany about music. They rang in the Millenium with an eight-and-a-half-hour set. The longer it went, the more the audience came together. I realized for the first time that music truly unites people, building community around a shared passion.
But my biggest musical epiphany happened in 2020, in the early days of COVID-19. The pandemic threw normal life into chaos, and amid widespread fears over people’s health, the music industry basically shut down, taking away the live concerts that people love. I wondered, was there a way to bring back concerts in a way that helped people cope with the crisis?
I called up two friends, John Hardin from Stand Together Ventures and Bishop Omar Jahwar from Urban Specialists. The three of us loved music, and after watching a musical fundraiser on Zoom, we came up with an idea. We’d create an online venue where musicians could connect with the Stand Together community, play their music, and tell their stories about the issues they cared about most.
We called it Stand Together Jam Together. For our first show, we brought in some musicians we knew — Sput from Snarky Puppy, Matt Sorum from Guns N’ Roses, and Michael Kang from String Cheese Incident. Over 500 people tuned in. They loved it. So did the artists.
Stand Together Jam Together spiraled into a virtual tour. At each show, we picked a different topic that the artists were passionate about — equal rights, addiction, mental health, poverty, and more. Their passion was overwhelming. You could feel it as they played their music and told their personal stories. At one show, my father had a conversation with Snoop Dogg about the war on drugs! I never dreamed I would be part of that. It powerfully showed that shared passion can unearth shared purpose.
When our experimental tour ended in 2021, the realization gripped me. Music could help solve problems in society — and I had to play a part. So we founded Stand Together Music. Our goal is as simple as it is sweeping: Build movements for social change with the power of music.
Look at 1 Million Strong, one of our biggest initiatives. The pandemic made clear that addiction and mental health are some of the biggest challenges in America. In Stand Together Jam Together, artists told us how much they wanted to help, not only their fans but also their own crews — and sometimes even themselves. Sadly, 56% of industry professionals struggle with substance use.
Our answer was 1 Million Strong. Created in partnership with The Phoenix and Stand Together Foundation, we’re transforming the way people think about and approach addiction and recovery. We’re working with big industry players — not just artists but also Live Nation, Oak View Group, iHeartMedia, and AEG — to create sober-supportive spaces in the middle of major festivals, concerts, and venues. In less than two years, we’ve made a big splash at places like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Stagecoach, and Bourbon and Beyond. Everyone in these audiences has a family member or friend struggling with addiction. By bringing attention to transformative groups like The Phoenix, we’re helping them show their loved ones how to beat it.
By 2025, we’ll support a million people struggling with addiction, while showing how power of community can help the nearly 50 million people dealing with addiction nationwide. And beyond 1 Million Strong, we’re collaborating with musicians and the music industry to tackle other problems, from poverty to criminal justice to cultural division. We’re just getting started with this movement.
Even as I focus on national partnerships, I’m also focused on collaborations in my hometown. In 2023, I founded Movement Musick, a nonprofit that empowers artists and fosters social change. Our first strategic initiative is to help create a new model for independent music and we are partnering with Midtopia, which is run by Adam and Jessie Hartke, two incredible partners who have dedicated their lives to transforming Wichita’s music scene. They’re creating a new model for independent music in our city, as shown by the “Elsewhere Fest” this month. I’m proud to partner with them. And through Movement Musick, I’ll continue to look for ways to grow Wichita’s community of artists and collaborate with musicians to tackle our country’s challenges.
At the most personal level, I’m trying to help solve social problems through my own music. In 2021, after Bishop Omar helped me found Stand Together Jam Together, he passed away from COVID. It was a painful loss, and not just for me. While he was in the hospital, I befriended his son, Omar Jahwar II. II, as he’s known, was really struggling. So I invited him over to my place to jam. A few months later, I met Sage Judd, a wizard on the keys who brought in Rudy Love.
By the end of that year, we found our missing link Robert Trusko on bass and founded a band: 2ŁØT. It stands for the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is all about Entropy — another word for chaos. We put slashes through the name to signify that we’re overcoming Entropy with our music, both for us personally and for society. Through our lyrics and at our concerts, we bring awareness to organizations and individuals tackling major social challenges like addiction, gang violence, and more.
I’m far from the first person to recognize music’s power. Some of the most iconic artists and songs are about tackling injustice and transforming society. I think of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Rage Against the Machine, Tupac, and so many others. They catalyzed people to do good. I hope to do the same with Stand Together Music, Movement Musick and 2ŁØT. As I learned at age 11, music has incredible power, and over time, I’ve come to an even greater appreciation of that truth. I won’t miss the opportunity to make a difference through the power of music.
