Warren Haynes, Tom Morello, Paul Simon & More Perform At Global Citizen Event
By Scott Bernstein Sep 23, 2016 • 6:41 am PDT
On Saturday New York City’s Central Park will host this year’s Global Citizen Festival, but the weekend got underway early for the organization which aims to stomp out extreme poverty by 2030 with Global Citizen: The World On Stage at the NYU Skirball Center. Warren Haynes, Tom Morello, Paul Simon and Jon Batiste & Stay Human were just a few of the acts to perform at the event on Thursday night.
The evening featured a mix of speeches and musical collaborations. A number of massive companies pledged to help refugees, while the Prime Minister of The Netherlands detailed a $50 million donation to the UN’s Water Supply and Sanitation Collaboration Council. Musically, the big news was the surprise addition of Paul Simon. Paul was on hand to honor George Harrison and wound up performing “Here Comes The Sun” with his longtime guitarist Mark Stewart.
Tom Morello teamed with the Kenyan Boys Choir on Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” and treated attendees to a riveting performance of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” featuring Batiste and others. Haynes was on hand for a solo performance of U2’s “One,” paired up with Jon Batiste and the house band for Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” and also took part in the evening’s grand finale as he shared the stage with Regina Spektor, Morello, Batiste and more for a cover of The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Watch Saturday’s Global Citizen Festival live on MSNBC as well as on the web.
