Raiders Owner and 'Guitar Collector' Mark Davis Supports Women Who Rock on International Women's Day
Georgia Fowkes
Mark Davis enjoyed some time away from Sin City while out supporting a female-fronted music event on International Women's Day.
At Women Who Rock's event in Los Angeles, the Las Vegas Raiders team owner bid on a Gibson guitar and won — then asked famed female rocker Orianthi, a pal of his, to sign it for him.
"It was a white custom Gibson Les Paul that the incredible team at Gibson donated to us to auction off," Women Who Rock founder Melinda Colaizzi shared with PEOPLE on her event to support women's health research.
"This was part of our global Hard Rock Cafe campaign," the singer-songwriter explains, "so it was a Women Who Rock and Hard Rock International Women's Day celebration concert benefiting Magee-Womens Research Institute."
Davis's new guitar went for an undisclosed number in the thousands, event reps tell PEOPLE, who reached out to Mark Davis for an official comment on his score.
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Georgia Fowkes Orianthi and Raiders owner Mark Davis with his new Gibson Les Paul
Australia-born Orianthi, 38, headlined the special night out at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood.
"It was such a wonderful evening for a great cause," Orianthi tells PEOPLE, sharing how personal women's health is to her as she recently just lost her grandma to cancer and her mother is a breast cancer survivor. "It means a lot to support women's health research at Magee-Womens Research Institute."
"We're always so grateful to have her as part of the family," Colaizzi says of "the world's most famous" female guitar player. "This is the third time she's participated in something Women Who Rock-related. She just totally brought the house down."
Mike Annichine, CEO of Magee-Womens, expressed to PEOPLE how grateful he is for Orianthi and Mark Davis's support.
"The night was amazing. Orianthi is so gracious and always brings her A-game," shares Annichine. "The energy in the room and the ability to spread the word throughout the world has been just absolutely fabulous," the Pittsburgh native says of their recent global partnership with Hard Rock to Rock Women's Health.
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"Every one of their team members has been leaning into this and helping us get the message out there, so we're seeing this collective energy amplified. I couldn't be happier," he adds.
"And Mark Davis, what a great guy. He's a big fan of Orianthi and that's how he wound up coming to this show," he tells PEOPLE. "He wound up sitting at my table and we had nice conversation and a nice evening. He wanted to support the cause, so he bought the guitar," he says, noting that Davis is "also a collector. He collects guitars."
Georgia Fowkes Orianthi and Mark Davis supporting Women Who Rock's event at Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood on March 8, 2023
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Not only is Davis a music fan, but he also appears to be into rap, as Raiders fans lost it back in December when they spotted Ice Cube sitting with the NFL team owner in December during a home game at Allegiant Stadium. And as sports fans know, along with the Raiders, Davis owns the Aces, the WNBA's Las Vegas team.
On Wednesday night, Davis expressed interest in creating a similar event with his WNBA team for charity. The businessman has said he has long been a champion for women in sports like his late father, Al Davis.
"He would know their high schools, where they went to college, their coaches and all of that stuff, so I got an interest in women's basketball early on," Davis, 67, shared to NBC Sports in April, adding that his dad's proficiency for women's basketball "rivaled" his knowledge of NFL football.
"Mark Davis is a huge supporter of women in sports and would love to do something with women in sports and music," Annichine says.
