LOS ANGELES, CA.- Ben Harper had a vision two years ago to merge the worlds of skateboarding and music to benefit the work of the Tony Hawk Foundation. The plan was for Tony Hawk to invite a select group of professional skateboarders to donate their personally ridden skateboards and submit the name of their favorite songs. Then Harper would send those boards on to the appropriate artists with one simple message: “Please write the lyrics to this skater’s favorite song on his skateboard, and we’ll use it to create more skateparks for kids.” Thus Boards + Bands was born!
This years chosen recording artists have hand-written the lyrics on these one-of-a-kind skateboards. Included in this unprecedented auction are board collaborations by the following artists and skaters: Sir Elton John, Bernie Taupin, and Chris Cole; Ben Harper and Christian Hosoi; Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash and Tony Hawk; Daft Punk and Aaron “Jaws” Homoki; John Lydon and Duane Peters; and more to be announced.
“Last Year's Boards + Bands auction surpassed all expectations,” said Tony Hawk. “This year we have equal caliber of skaters and musicians contributing, so I am looking forward to seeing the excitement (and high bidding) they bring.”
These special collaboration skateboards will be available in a celebrity auction launching December 5th at 7pm/pst on eBay (
www.BoardsAndBands.org), and will be on display through the end of the auction at the GRAMMY Museum in downtown Los Angeles, California.
A charitable, non-profit organization, the Tony Hawk Foundation was established in 2002 by its namesake, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, to promote and provide funds for high-quality public skateparks in low-income areas throughout the United States—with an emphasis on the word “quality.” Since then, the Foundation has awarded over $4.6-million to 537 communities in all 50 States. The Foundation focuses on working with local officials and grassroots, community-based organizations that plan to hire designers and contractors with strong experience designing and building skateparks.
