VetsAid headlined by Joe Walsh coming to UBS Arena

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Joe Walsh’s eighth annual VetsAid concert to help fund military veterans charities will take place at UBS Arena in Elmont with Walsh, Kool & the Gang, Toto and Eric Church, the venue and the organization each announced Monday. Walsh in May had released the show’s Nov. 11 date, saying then that it would take place in Queens.

General-public tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster.com.

“VetsAid 2024 is all about family, friends and faith. I honor my wife’s family and their legacy of service in her home borough of Queens,” said the 76-year-old Walsh in a statement. His wife, VetsAid co-founder Marjorie Walsh, originally of Rosedale, Queens, is the daughter of a World War II Air Force veteran and Purple Heart recipient, the organization said.

Additionally, said VetsAid, Walsh’s father was a flight instructor for the first U.S. operational jet-powered aircraft, the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, and died while stationed on active duty on Okinawa when Walsh was 20 months old.

Walsh, who succeeded Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon beginning with the landmark album “Hotel California” (1976), is known for his virtuosic playing and off-kilter sense of humor. His top 25 solo hits include “Rocky Mountain Way” and “Life's Been Good.”

The 60-year-old R&B funk group Kool & the Gang, being inducted this fall into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, continues to include co-founder Robert “Kool” Bell aka Muhammad Bayyan. Among the band’s dozen top 10 singles are the 1980 No. 1 hit “Celebration” plus such staples as “Ladies Night” and “Jungle Boogie.”

Toto, formed in 1977 as an all-star ensemble of Southern California sessions musicians and known for the 1982 No. 1 single “Africa” and that same year’s No. 2 hit “Rosanna,” is fronted by founding co-member Steve Lukather and mid-1980s addition Joseph Williams, who returned to the band in 2010.

Eric Church is a popular outlaw-country singer who has won numerous Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association awards.

“We’ve got something for everyone at VetsAid this year — country, pop, rock, funk and gospel — so all aboard!” said Walsh in his statement.

He added, “I honor our collective faith in the power of music to bring fans of diverse backgrounds together in celebration and our faith in the power of love to unite us all as Americans to support a population of veterans that has sacrificed so much and asked for so little in return.”

All net proceeds from the concert go directly to select veterans services charities. To date, the organization said, VetsAid has disbursed nearly $3.5 million.