Mark Bennett: Hautean native witnessed 'incredible' first Farm Aid, says issues still matter

Jul. 14—Family farmers rarely get a national spotlight. An unique musical moment managed to bring attention to a hard-working, tradition-conscious slice of America — Farm Aid.

The original Farm Aid concert unfolded on Sept. 22, 1985, in the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium at Champaign. Nearly 80,000 fans flocked to see and hear a now-mindboggling array of musicians perform from late morning until 1:30 a.m. the next day.

Between songs and acts, its organizers continually reminded the crowd of Farm Aid's mission "to keep family farmers on their land."

Among the tens of thousands of fans, who coped with intermittent rain, was Terre Haute native and former Tribune-Star journalist Rob Shaw.

"It was just a marathon of rain and music," Shaw recalled Friday morning of that historic event.

Thirty-eight years later, Farm Aid continues and its 2023 concert is coming to Indiana for the first time since 2001 and just the third time ever.

Tickets for the Sept. 23 show at Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville go on sale at 10 a.m. today through online purchases at LiveNation.com. Prices range from $75 to $315 to see a lineup that includes Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds) and Margo Price, along with Bobby Weir and Wolf Brothers featuring The Wolfpack, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson, Allison Russell, The String Cheese Incident and Particle Kid.

In 1985, Rob Shaw and the Farm Aid fans paid $17.50 per ticket to see not only Nelson, Young and Mellencamp, but a nearly 60-act lineup that featured rock and country icons like the Bob Dylan, B.B King, Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Don Henley, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Cash, John Denver, John Fogerty, Foreigner, Vince Gill, Carole King, Billy Joel, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Roy Orbison, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson, Lou Reed, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and many more.

In fact, singer Sammy Hagar performed with Van Halen for the first time on that Champaign stage in '85.

For $17.50.

"If you think about it now, that wouldn't even get your Ticketmaster fees," Shaw said. "$17.50 to see the parade of legendary performers they brought out is incredible. It was kind of like our Live Aid in the heartland."

Indeed, there was a connection. Live Aid occurred earlier in 1985 as a famine-relief fundraiser concert for Ethiopia, watched by 1.9 billion people, including 150,000 fans viewing it live at stadiums in Philadelphia and London. Dylan was reportedly asked about Live Aid's impact and suggested some of its proceeds go to American farmers.

That spark moved Nelson, Young and Mellencamp, and others, to organize Farm Aid. They did it in just six weeks.

Since then, according to FarmAid.org, annual Farm Aid concerts have raised more than $64 million "to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms."

Back in '85, the primary method of donating was a toll-free telephone number. The performers and emcees issued reminders at the Champaign concert.

"1-800-FARM-AID was drummed into you a thousand times," said Shaw, now a husband and father of two who lives in Clearwater, Florida. He moved to Florida from Terre Haute in 1986.

He was 22 years old when he attended the first Farm Aid and working as a copy editor at the Tribune-Star, while also finishing a degree at Indiana State University. He and a girl from Indianapolis drove to Champaign for the all-day concert. He remains amazed by the assortment of musical greats they witnessed that day.

"It was just this incredible smorgasbord of legendary performers. You had your rock, your country, your folk," Shaw said.

Some of the bands and artists hadn't yet become famous.

Early that morning, a woman drenched from rain stood near Shaw and his friend screaming two words he'd not heard before. "BON JOVI! BON JOVI!" the woman yelled repeatedly.

"I had no idea what a Bon Jovi was," Shaw quipped, "but I quickly learned, and she quieted down."

Jon Bon Jovi and his New Jersey-based band had formed just two years earlier, and only had one mildly popular hit by 1985, "Runaway." Now, the group is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with 120 million copies of their records sold worldwide.

So, yes, the screaming woman's excitement seems valid today.

Shaw was a rock and roll listener, and not so much a fan of country music. His parents played country records in their home during his boyhood years, though, so he was familiar with many of the country acts that appeared at that first Farm Aid. Along with Cash, Gill, Jones, Haggard, Jennings and Lynn were other country standouts like Alabama, Glen Campbell, Charlie Daniels, Roger Miller and Kenny Rogers.

"Now that I'm an old geezer, I have an appreciation of that kind of music," said Shaw, now 59.

One of that day's central performers was Hoosier-born Mellencamp, who was 33 then and is 71 now. The Seymour rocker (then known as John Cougar Mellencamp) had just released his breakthrough "Scarecrow" album, which expanded his sound to embody folk, Americana, R&B and roots blues. Its songs touched on broken promises and the plight of farmers, including the song "Rain on the Scarecrow."

Shaw has seen Mellencamp perform multiple times since Farm Aid '85, including a show last February in Clearwater. Shaw's impressed by his enduring talents and the messages in his songs.

"His music is just spectacular," Shaw said. "He may be getting old like me, but he still puts on a great show and sings for all the right reasons."

At the original Farm Aid, Mellencamp was "just a young, boyish guy dancing around the stage," Shaw said. Today, Mellencamp, Nelson, Young, Matthews and the core of Farm Aid still believe in the organization's cause.

"Family farmers have the solutions to some of our toughest challenges," Nelson said in a Farm Aid news release. "As we face a changing climate, farmers in Indiana, across the Midwest and all over the country are farming in ways that create more resilient farms to build healthy soils and protect our water."

Willie Nelson is now 90 years old.

"I think there are still a lot of the same issues out there, and it's incredibly refreshing to see that Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp and the others are still out there doing what they can," Shaw said. "Kudos to them for keeping this out in the forefront and for everyone's awareness."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.